Some of the largest and most influential Twitter accounts in the world were hacked earlier today to promote fake Bitcoin giveaways. But eagle-eyed Reddit users have spotted a series of hidden messages in transactions sent to the Bitcoin wallet at the center of the scam. Prominent accounts targeted in the Twitter attack included Joe Biden, Elon Musk, George Wallace, Bill Gates, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Wiz Khalifa, Warren Buffett, Mike Bloomberg, Barack Obama and Jeff Bezos. The accounts were hacked with a message promising that if users sent BTC to a particular address, they would get a 2:1 return. According …

A Texas resident was charged by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas on July 14. Allegations suggest that he fraudulently filed loan applications for $1.1 million through the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP. He claimed he was seeking COVID-19 relief, but allegedly actually used the funds to purchase cryptocurrency. According to the allegations published by the U.S. Department of Justice, 29-year old Joshua Thomas Argires made false statements to financial institutions. Officials claim that Argires committed wire fraud by establishing a scheme to file the applications to the Small Business Administration, or SBA. Argires managed to submit …

Two promoters of a major cryptocurrency exit scam, OneCoin, have been found dead in Mazatlan, Mexico. Oscar Brito Ibarra and Ignacio Ibarra, two major OneCoin promoters, were apparently kidnapped and killed in Mexico, Cointelegraph en Español reported on Tuesday. According to the report, the two men were promoting OneCoin as a payment method for a local car firm, the Latin American Automotive Marketing Company. The terrifying news was first reported by major Latin American publication, La Tercera, on Saturday. According to the report, the bodies of Brito and Ibarra were found stuffed into suitcases and dumped in a vacant lot. …

The United States Army Criminal Investigation Division Command (USACIDC) is seeking a Software-as-as-Service web application to help them track and trace illicit cryptocurrency transactions. According to a statement of work published on July 10, the USACIDC along with the Major Cybercrime Unit and FBI will use the application to detect activities such as fraud, extortion and money laundering carried out using cryptocurrencies. The organization is taking bids for developed, tested and read-to-deploy web applications for the purpose till July 20. The application must allow multi-currency analysis As per the USACIDC — an arm of the U.S. Army that conducts criminal …

Sohrab Sharma, one of the co-founders of cryptocurrency firm Centra Tech facing charges related to a $25 million initial coin offering scam, is reportedly planning to plead guilty. According to a July 13 report from Bloomberg, Sharma may avoid a November trial date as his lawyers told a federal judge he would be interested in changing his plea. The announcement comes after Sharma’s associate Robert Farkas was convicted of conspiring to commit securities and wire fraud on June 16. Farkas faces up to 87 months in prison and a $250,000 fine. A history of scamming The U.S. Department of Justice …

A dark web drug lord and a Nebraskan pharmacist pled guilty to federal charges on July 13 after both were accused of conspiring to bomb a competing business. According to the indictment by the U.S. Department of Justice, 32-year-old William Burgamy from Maryland was the alleged owner of an illegal pharmaceutical site called NeverPressedRX. The site sold oxycodone and a number of other drugs. His supplier, Hyrum Wilson, is the owner of a store called Hyrum’s Family Value Pharmacy. The two were found to have conspired to firebomb a competing Nebraskan pharmacy, though the two men were arrested before the …

The U.S. Secret Service announced the creation of the Cyber Fraud Task Force, or CFTF on July 10, after merged its Electronic Crimes Task Forces and Financial Crimes Task Forces into a single network. According to the official announcement, the Secret Service had been planning over two years to create a unified task force to combat cybercrimes related to the financial sector and fight things like ransomware attacks, business email compromise scams, credit card online stealing, among others. The CFTF appears in a context that the illegal market of credit card stolen data through the dark web and banking details …

Plutus, a crypto finance app founded in 2015, denied social media reports that its database was compromised by a hacking attack launched by alleged threat actors. On July 9, Israel-based threat intelligence firm, Sixgill, published an alert through their official Twitter account which stated that hackers have been sharing a database stolen from the crypto app since July 7, with no additional details revealed. Official Plutus statement on the alleged cyber-incident However, a representative from Plutus sent Cointelegraph the following statement: “We have investigated several possible attack vectors and not found any evidence of hacking. We want to reassure our …

A recent study revealed that over 15 billion credentials are in circulation via the dark web, representing a 300% increase since 2018. Available information ranges from network access credentials, banking login data, and even streaming services accounts from Netflix. According to research conducted by the cybersecurity firm Digital Shadows, part of the leaked data is even circulating for free. The report warns that the reason that so many account credentials are available online is that people are using non-complex passwords that can be easily brute-forced using hacking tools. Access to corporate networks as an open door for ransomware attacks Among …

Wirecard’s recently-prosecuted former Chief Operations Officer, Jan Marsalek, may have had ties to Russian intelligence services. He also allegedly held secret documents about the use of a Russian chemical weapon in the U.K. According to the Financial Times, the former Wirecard executive bragged of his intelligence services’ ties in an effort to further integrate with London traders. Recovered documents contain specific data on the formula for the world’s deadliest nerve agent, known as Novichok. The chemical weapon was used in the poisoning of a former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Julia on March 4, 2018. Germany on the …

Crypto mogul and Ripple co-founder, Chris Larsen, paid over $4 million to install 1,000 high-definition cameras on the streets of San Francisco. He claims his goal is to combat crime, specifically theft. According to a report published by The New York Times, Larsen – who recently recovered from COVID-19 – decided to take up this project after a group of unknown men climbed into his garden in 2011 and cut the wires to his home security while his children were sleeping inside. “Alternative” system for public security Ripple’s executive chairman stated that he sees this as an alternative urban security …

One of four men charged with defrauding investors of more than $722 million through a long-running cryptocurrency mining scheme has pleaded guilty to charges against him. The man, a 35-year-old Romanian programmer called Silviu Catalin Bacali, was arrested in Germany in December 2019. He was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud as well as a conspiracy to offer and sell unregistered securities. He faces a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Three others — Matthew Brent Goettsche, Russ Albert Medlin, Jobadiah Sinclair Weeks and Joseph Frank Abel — were charged in …