Twitter Bitcoin hacker who took over accounts of Bill Gates, Joe Biden and Elon Musk risks 77 years in prison

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Last Updated on 6 November 2023 by CryptoTips.eu

Back in July of 2020, the official account of former US President Barack Obama, who has more than 100 million followers on Twitter, promised to return double the amount of Bitcoin to anyone who made a donation to him at a certain crypto wallet address. Within minutes, the accounts of Joe Biden (then only a presidential candidate), Tesla CEO Elon Musk, rapper Kanye West and Microsoft founder Bill Gates did the same.

Several hundred people fell for the obvious scam, which lasted only half an hour, and sent nearly a million dollars to the group of young hackers who had taken over the accounts. The story became legendary as the ‘Twitter Bitcoin scam’ and made headlines around the world. Bitcoin was trading for around $9,000 at the time.

Apparently they gained access to the accounts of many celebrities (some 130 accounts were taken over) through a social engineering hack targeting several of Twitter’s employees at the time.

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The first to be arrested (almost immediately) was a (then) 17-year-old named Graham Ivan Clark (known on the internet by his alias “Kirk”). Due to his young age, the youngster received only 3 years in prison.

The ‘brains’ behind the hack, Briton Joseph O’Connor (known on the internet by his alias ‘Plugwalk Joe’), aged 23, decided to flee and was finally arrested in Spain two years ago.

Last month, following an agreement between Spain and the United States, Joseph was extradited to New York. A court has now sentenced him this week for the Twitter Bitcoin scam and at the end of June he will be told what punishment he will receive. If convicted on all charges, Joseph faces a maximum prison sentence of 77 years. That’s a tad more than the 3 years his younger co-conspirator is serving of course.

AdriaVidal / Depositphotos.com

Jeroen Kok

Jeroen is one of the lead copywriters on Cryptotips.eu and discusses all recent events in the crypto market. This includes news updates, but also price analyzes and more. He developed his passion for cryptocurrency during the bull run in 2017. He has learned a lot since then. The combination of cryptocurrency and creative writing is perfect for Jeroen and an excellent way to share his knowledge with a wide audience. Find me on LinkedIn / [email protected]
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