A British hacker who raked in millions through an astoundingly brazen scam, where he took over the social media accounts of billionaires and and US presidents, has been forced to hand back a small fortune by a court
Joseph James O’Connor, known in the hacker community as PlugwalkJoe, took part in one of the largest cyber attacks of recent times, impersonating global figures like Elon Musk, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden to swindle people out of their money.
O'Connor, 26, received a five-year jail term in the US after entering a guilty plea to charges including computer intrusion, wire fraud and extortion in 2023.
The mass hack of high profile accounts on social media took place in 2020, with members of a hacking collective posing as the likes of Kim Kardashian and Bill Gates.
"Everyone is asking me to give back. You send $1,000, I send you back $2,000," one hacker wrote from Gates' account.
Scammers raked in millions from members of the public who saw these posts, which invited them to transfer their hard-earned cash into cryptocurrency wallets, in the hopes that this would help to launder their money and cover their tracks.
O'Connor, a British citizen, was arrested in Spain in 2021 and eventually extradited after the country's High Court ruled that the majority of his crimes and their victims were located in the US.
Following his trial in the southern district of New York, he was ordered to repay $800,000
A UK court ordered O'Connor to pay back £4.1 million ($5.4 million) of his ill-got gains on Monday (November 17). Local law enforcement has also been granted a civil forfeiture motion to seize the hacker's assets, which will include 42 bitcoins worth around $4 million.
British prosecutor Adrian Foster claimed the seizure as a victory.
"Joseph James O’Connor targeted well known individuals and used their accounts to scam people out of their crypto assets and money," he said.
Adding in a warning to cyber criminals, he said: "Even when someone is not convicted in the UK, we are still able to ensure they do not benefit from their criminality."
Three other individuals have been arrested in connection with this hijacking of high-profile social media accounts, with hackers gaining access to the back-end of X. 130 accounts were targeted, with scams posted from 45 of them.
They did this by phoning X employees with a plausible story that got them to hand over their log-in details, eventually gaining control over some of the platform's internal systems, it emerged in court.
Posts made by the hackers to deceive people into parting ways with their money were seen by over 350 million users before being taken down - with thousands falling victim to the scam.