Great news that they are getting caught. At least this guy was clever. It is the stupid scammers that are lazy and put in 0 effort that annoy me the most. I am glad they traced and found him. He was clever but not clever enough. His transactions were kept too public I guess somewhere along the line he must have made a mistake and inserting a sim in the wrong phone or used an exchange that could track him. I bet that they probably won't let us know the outcome. I guess it is not meaty enough news to show the outcome.
Such a criminal might be wrong to choose the path, because I think he has the ability. need to be guided to do good things in the future, the goal is that he does more useful things. the mistake he made right now was enough to some people, and he deserved the punishment that was in force 
Topic: Teen crook hacked into 75 phones and stole $1M in cryptocurrency: authorities - page 2. (Read 863 times)
December 26, 2019, 11:45:16 AM
December 26, 2019, 11:39:36 AM
A minimum of 5 years is enough for this criminal to serve, because he did it intentionally and consciously. To harm two victims, this is a million dollar business and they caught him. There is no retreat and nowhere to escape, caught red-handed. No luck guy.
December 23, 2019, 02:08:27 PM
Great news that they are getting caught. At least this guy was clever. It is the stupid scammers that are lazy and put in 0 effort that annoy me the most. I am glad they traced and found him. He was clever but not clever enough. His transactions were kept too public I guess somewhere along the line he must have made a mistake and inserting a sim in the wrong phone or used an exchange that could track him. I bet that they probably won't let us know the outcome. I guess it is not meaty enough news to show the outcome.
December 23, 2019, 02:08:09 PM
I wouldn't call it a talent, he has skills that he uses in a bad way so he is criminal by definition. He could have some accomplice here, I surmise that do that initial pre-staging for him and then he do everything from behind. One lesson though, sooner or later the full hands of the law will caught them. One thing that can be an advantage for him is that he is still very young, at least he can still mend ways once he got a second lease of life.
I do not deny that he is a true criminal, but with what he did, with his skill at a very young age. The link above does not mention any of his accomplices. The problem is that he chose the wrong path, instead of being given to glory, he chose the criminal path, anyway I keep my opinion, he is talented.
December 23, 2019, 12:11:39 PM
I wouldn't call it a talent, he has skills that he uses in a bad way so he is criminal by definition. He could have some accomplice here, I surmise that do that initial pre-staging for him and then he do everything from behind. One lesson though, sooner or later the full hands of the law will caught them. One thing that can be an advantage for him is that he is still very young, at least he can still mend ways once he got a second lease of life.
I do not deny that he is a true criminal, but with what he did, with his skill at a very young age. The link above does not mention any of his accomplices. The problem is that he chose the wrong path, instead of being given to glory, he chose the criminal path, anyway I keep my opinion, he is talented.
December 22, 2019, 11:49:02 AM
That's why instead of stopping people to use cryptocurrency because of this kind of matter, the government should make efforts to teach people how dangerous internet could be and give everyone knowledge to avoid scams and fraud. We are responsible for our own money and if we lose them, it's our fault for being careless. We can't stop them so we have to be educated for ourselves. We can't change them so we need to change and be educated. How can people will be that technology literate if the government is trying to stop people from learning it.
December 22, 2019, 09:59:39 AM
We cannot prevent these frauds by only punishing them. People need good education. Those who do fraud need to be rehabilitated again. Or he'il be in prison for a while. When he gets out, he can commit that crime again.
Phones are more important than our ID cards because we carry all our information and money inside the phone!
Phones are more important than our ID cards because we carry all our information and money inside the phone!
December 22, 2019, 09:59:06 AM
The fact the he stole all the money from just 2 victims in my opinion means he targeted those users very carefully. Maybe he knew them in person or they are quite famous.
December 22, 2019, 09:52:27 AM
You guys know that there is a internet security company or nation state that would love to hire these kids.
Imagine a nation state working with their team of hackers with these kids and we see them hack crypto on a global scale.
Imagine a nation state working with their team of hackers with these kids and we see them hack crypto on a global scale.
December 22, 2019, 08:04:07 AM
~snip~
You are probably right, some people are extremely irresponsible and share their information everywhere, and sometimes they boast about the amount of coins they own. In fact, they are causing themselves problems in life, because such things should be private. It's not just about anyone being able to do us a SIM swap, it's also about physically endangering our property and lives.It is a big responsibility on the mobile carriers who should introduce a much bigger check before issuing a replacement SIM card, but most are only interested in making as much profit as possible.
December 21, 2019, 03:03:37 PM
~
I agree that this is not a classic hack, but how he gets phone numbers of potential victims? I'm sure it's not random guessing of numbers, it really wouldn't make any sense. 2 accounts and $1 million seems like a perfectly targeted attack.~ I just walked into my carrier's store, said my name and phone number, and got a new card.
Well, you answered the question a bit yourself...
You went in with only the number and the name and got it.
And phone numbers nowadays are so easy to get from guys working with cryptos, everyone is in telegram and WhatsApp groups and lots of people forget that giving your real phone number to strangers is not a good idea.
Sometimes I feel like it's harder to get those details from a girl you try to pick up in a bar than from the whole team of a crypto "project".
December 21, 2019, 02:35:36 PM
It's just a matter of time before these bad eggs are going to be caught, either they make a mistakes or authorities are simply hunting them down. 5-10 years sentence will be enough for this criminals? What do you think?
The truth is that this is not going to end, it's left for us all to learn to be very careful on how we handle our money account, you never know what may happen. This is not the first time that this kind of people have been caught and punished, they have been punished several times but despite that you still continue to see a lot of them popping up. So that's not going to change, we all just have to be very careful and avoid them.I think this is a hot blow on uncle G 
who seems to be security concious and tend to offer one of the most secured email services.
So, why did gmail not detect unusual activities?
Gmail notifies users once there are suspicious activities in their account, but you get notified when someone has already accessed your account, so I'm very sure that the owners of the Gmail accounts got the alert that an unknown device accessed their Gmail. Good thing he was caught. who seems to be security concious and tend to offer one of the most secured email services.So, why did gmail not detect unusual activities?
December 21, 2019, 08:39:08 AM
Not a support for thieves, but I'm really impressed by what a 19-year-old guy can do. He's really talented, but this talent is not being used, it's a pity. Anyway, recently, a lot of thieves have been arrested, which is a good thing. The authorities have been doing their job very well. With cryptocurrencies, we can't know when we're hacked, everything is dangerous, even with your phone.
I wouldn't call it a talent, he has skills that he uses in a bad way so he is criminal by definition. He could have some accomplice here, I surmise that do that initial pre-staging for him and then he do everything from behind. One lesson though, sooner or later the full hands of the law will caught them. One thing that can be an advantage for him is that he is still very young, at least he can still mend ways once he got a second lease of life.
December 21, 2019, 07:52:32 AM
He is simply a con artist who constantly goes to stores and asks clerks for a new sim card with the victims's number because he "lost" it.
That's all they do, nothing high tech, all you need is to to be a good snake oil salesman.
I agree that this is not a classic hack, but how he gets phone numbers of potential victims? I'm sure it's not random guessing of numbers, it really wouldn't make any sense. 2 accounts and $1 million seems like a perfectly targeted attack.That's all they do, nothing high tech, all you need is to to be a good snake oil salesman.
It is a big responsibility on the telecom companies that provide replacement SIM cards very easily, sometimes without any verification. I personally had the experience of having my SIM card replaced in less than 1 minute without ever asking for verification. I just walked into my carrier's store, said my name and phone number, and got a new card. After that, I wouldn't use any SIM-related service that has anything to do with something as sensitive as cryptocurrency.
December 21, 2019, 06:51:49 AM
I think instead of 5-7 years and Making new laws for cryptocurrencies they should be given equivalent life sentence with respect to the people who do frauds in millions , just because it's Cryptocurrency doesn't mean it's fake money ..
5-7-10 years depends , but they shouldn't be discriminated. Money doesn't appear out of thin air , money is money government should realize that .
5-7-10 years depends , but they shouldn't be discriminated. Money doesn't appear out of thin air , money is money government should realize that .
December 21, 2019, 06:43:33 AM
Even it is a good thing that they were able to caught the suspect, it still bothers me. Because it's a teen! Meaning all ages with enough knowledge, they can really do bad things for their own. 19 is still a young age yet me manage to steal big amount of money. It only means that cryptocurrency hacking are growing, even young age can do it. The more it grows, the lesser the possibility that the government will approve the idea of cryptocurrency. How can we achieve mass adoption when news like this can grow fud to other people?
December 21, 2019, 06:17:31 AM
Not a support for thieves, but I'm really impressed by what a 19-year-old guy can do. He's really talented, but this talent is not being used, it's a pity.
Taletended in what?
Really, stop using the word "hacker" and "hack" there is nothing like this happening here!
He is simply a con artist who constantly goes to stores and asks clerks for a new sim card with the victims's number because he "lost" it.
That's all they do, nothing high tech, all you need is to to be a good snake oil salesman.
Quote
Authorities executed search warrants on Selassie’s Brooklyn and California residences, where they seized half a dozen iPhones, two Rolex watches, a monogrammed Gucci wallet and numerous pieces of high-end jewelry, according to court papers.
Indeed, such a smart and talented boy he was, you realize how much talent those thieves have just by looking at what they purchase.
December 21, 2019, 06:08:38 AM
It's a common exploit. Even the CEO of Twitter has been victim of such method, though only used to manipulate his Twitter account. I think the problem relies on the SIM service providers. They should impose restrictions on who can only make valid SIM swap to their accounts. If in that point, it is already secure, then these types of hacks would be lessen.
December 21, 2019, 05:53:04 AM
Not a support for thieves, but I'm really impressed by what a 19-year-old guy can do. He's really talented, but this talent is not being used, it's a pity. Anyway, recently, a lot of thieves have been arrested, which is a good thing. The authorities have been doing their job very well. With cryptocurrencies, we can't know when we're hacked, everything is dangerous, even with your phone.
December 21, 2019, 05:21:11 AM
with a sentence of 5-10 years can destroy their mentality, and I think after they are free they will do good because the prison also makes a goal so that people can return to doing good in social life after they are free and I think quite comparable because they also definitely pay a fine.
A sneak will always be a sneak even after after shedding its skin so being prisoned doesn't guarantee that they will do a good deeds in the future but it's for sure could make people think twice before doing wicked things and it's a good thing that these people being prisoned god knows what they'll do with the money and probably for something useless or even illegal. Jump to: