Security News > 2021 > March > Bitcoin scammer who hacked celeb Twitter accounts gets 3 years
It happened in July 2020, when many prominent blue-badged Twitter accounts suddenly starting sending out scammy cryptocoin messages.
"Feeling greatful , doubling all payments made to my Bitcoin address," said one message, urging people to pay out $1000 now, with a $2000 payback to follow later.
It soon transpired that Twitter had lost control of numerous high-profile accounts to gift-of-the-gab cybercriminals - social engineers, in popular parlance - who had tricked Twitter staff into handing over internal account passwords for Twitter systems.
Those passwords ultimately allowed the crooks to login to internal Twitter servers that would usually only be used by Twitter support staff.
The crooks were therefore allegedly able to set themselves up to receive password reset notifications for 45 accounts, out of the 130 that they tried to take over, and thereby to get direct control of the Twitter feeds of Musk, Gates, Apple et al.
Clark has now made what is known in America as a plea agreement with prosecutors, whereby he will accept a sentence of three years in prison followed by three years on probation in return for pleading guilty to and accepting responsibility for the crime.