A 17-year-old in Tampa, Florida, is being accused of taking over Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Barack Obama, and numerous Twitter accounts of other celebrities to trick people into sending him Bitcoin.
The teenager, whose name and photo CNBC is not publishing because he is a minor, was arrested and charged, Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Andrew’s office announced Friday.
“These crimes were perpetrated using the names of famous people and celebrities, but they are not the main victims here,” Warren said in a statement. “This ‘Bit-Con’ was designed to steal money from regular Americans across the country, including here in Florida. This massive fraud was orchestrated right here in our backyard, and we will not tolerate it.”
Warren’s office has filed 30 felony charges against the 17-year-old. The charges include organized fraud, communications fraud, fraudulent use of personal information, and unauthorized access to computers or electronic devices. The teenager’s scam reaped more than $ 100,000 in Bitcoin on July 15, according to Warren’s office.
Twitter provided its latest update on the attack Thursday night.
“The social engineering that occurred on July 15, 2020 targeted a small number of employees through a phishing phone attack,” Twitter said in a blog post. “A successful attack required attackers to gain access to our internal network as well, such as employee-specific credentials that gave them access to our internal support tools. Not all employees who were initially attacked had permissions to use account management tools. But the attackers used their credentials to access our internal systems and obtain information about our processes.
Twitter acknowledged the charges and the arrest Friday.
“We appreciate the speedy actions of law enforcement in this investigation and will continue to cooperate as the case progresses,” Twitter said in a tweet. “For our part, we are focused on being transparent and providing updates regularly.”
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