Recent news shows Delaware playing an important role in the capture of British hacker Grant West. U.K. Authorities caught West last year and recovered $700,000 worth of Bitcoin.
The Catch
According to a report by Delawareonline, undercover U.K. officials caught West last year while he was traveling by train. West was convicted of fraud, in addition to other crimes.
Catching West “was the first time London Metropolitan Police arrested a cybercriminal” reports Delawarenewsonline. This case dates back to activity in 2015, with West hacking over 100 different companies.
The same report also uncovers the U.S. Secret Service of Delaware having a part in West’s capture. Roughly one year ago, Delaware helped British police uncover some of West’s stolen capital, finding an account with close to $217,000,000 of value in Bitcoin.
“Delaware for years has been the site of large numbers of government seizures of dollars from the bank accounts of suspected criminals because so many banks keep their central servers in the First State. Now, that has expanded to include bitcoin and other cryptocurrency”, reported Delawareonline.
Grant West – A Formidable Opponent
According to a report by CCN earlier this year, West – aka Courvoisier, hacked “websites of companies such as Sainsbury’s, Uber, Ladbrokes and others. After gaining access into the companies’ websites, he would then obtain personal information of customers for companies”.
West stole the private data of these companies’ clients, via phishing emails, and then proceeded to sell that information online.
A separate report by Delawareonline explains that West was able to cover his tracks by storing his stolen funds in Bitcoin and spreading them out into multiple wallets. During West’s capture, authorities were also able to apprehend his computer, which contained many of the pertinent passwords and information needed to access the stolen funds.
West had stolen private information from close to 165,000 different people, including specifics from 63,000 different payment cards, detailed one BBC report.
One of West’s most notable scams were his phishing emails, disguised as emails from the popular online food service Just Eat. West’s efforts were so vast, that the judge on the case described West as “a one man cyber crime wave” according to BBC. West’s efforts led him to accrue the equivalent of over $2 million in cryptocurrency.
West was given 10 years and eight months in jail for his criminal activities, as stated by computing.co.uk.
The public continues to see repeated news of criminals apprehended in the cryptocurrency space this year. Chinese police arrested hackers guilty of $87 million in stolen crypto funds, stated by an August report from CCN. July also saw CCN reporting on Russian agents hacking emails, in hopes of Bitcoin keeping them anonymous.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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