{"id":85448,"date":"2024-07-29T04:18:42","date_gmt":"2024-07-29T08:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/?p=85448"},"modified":"2024-07-29T10:17:35","modified_gmt":"2024-07-29T14:17:35","slug":"hacker-sentenced-to-3-5-years-for-900k-coinbase-scam-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/hacker-sentenced-to-3-5-years-for-900k-coinbase-scam-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Hacker Sentenced to 3.5 Years for $900K Coinbase Scam: Report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UK hacker faces prison for his Coinbase dummy website scam, an El Paso man's crypto “Ponzi” fueled his lavish lifestyle,\u00a0and Washington DFI flags the latest crypto fraud<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hacker<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A computer hacker from the United Kingdom has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for his involvement in the scheme, which involved the compromise of over 500 Coinbase accounts through phishing websites in 2018 and 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multiple news outlets have reported that Elliot Gunton has entered a guilty plea to conspiracy to commit fraud outside the UK and money laundering<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a July 27 report by North Norfolk News\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/g>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/clipPath>\r\n <\/defs><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, he and others stole over $900,000 from more than 500 Coinbase accounts when they were just 17 and 18 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court was informed that Gunton accessed the Coinbase accounts by redirecting online log-ins to a dummy website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was highly sophisticated offending that involved significant planning and technical expertise,\u201d Judge Alice Robinson of the Norwich Crown Court said, according to a July 27 report by Norwich Evening News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hacker<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is not the first time that he has garnered attention for the wrong reasons, either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, Gunton was initially sentenced to 20 months in prison for the theft of personal data of TalkTalk customers in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in crypto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he reportedly avoided jail time by completing a 12-month rehabilitation program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After breaching into numerous high-profile Instagram accounts, he was also compelled to reimburse 407,359 British pounds, which are currently valued at $524,700.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US Court Orders Crypto Fraudsters to Pay Back $31M<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, a federal court in the United States has ordered Abner Alejandro Tinoco and his firm, Kikit and Mess Investments, to pay more than $31 million as a result of their involvement in fraudulent cryptocurrency and foreign currency schemes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tinoco is accused of receiving investment funds from clients and disbursing “false” profits to other clients, a practice that is similar to a “Ponzi scheme.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He deceived victims into believing that their funds were being invested; however, they were actually being used to finance Tinoco's extravagant lifestyle, which included the costs of chartering a private jet, purchasing a luxury mansion, and other real estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court has ordered Tinoco, Kikit, and Mess to pay $6.2 million in restitution to nearly 200 defrauded victims, $6.2 million in disgorgement (the legally mandated repayment of ill-gotten gains), and a $18.8 million civil monetary penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The commodities regulator of the United States noted in its July 26 statement that the civil monetary penalty is approximately three times the quantity of unlawful funds received from their fraudulent cryptocurrency and forex schemes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September 2020, the fraudulent schemes commenced, resulting in the loss of $7.2 million from victims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed an enforcement action against Tinoco, Kikit, and Mess about 12 months later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington Regulator Flags Vims.One in Fraud Alert<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions has identified a crypto platform that may be fraudulent and has advised investors to avoid it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DFI received a complaint from an investor who claimed to have deposited crypto funds on the alleged investment platform Vims.One, which is no longer accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DFI said Vims.One was linked to a \u201cnonprofit organization\u201d called the Miami Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facilitators “Mark” and “Alice” allegedly lured the victim into a WhatsApp chat, where they assured them that they would receive a return exceeding 100% on a bi-weekly basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The platform required investors to pay a 5% commission to withdraw funds; however, the victim that DFI spoke to was able to recoup the funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DFI said, \u201c[We urge] consumers to exercise extreme caution before responding to any solicitation offering investment or financial services.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Korean Authorities Charge Alleged Fake Crypto Mining Fraudster<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The authorities in Korea have apprehended and prosecuted a man for operating a fake crypto-mining business<\/a>, which resulted in the theft of over $1.3 million (1.8 billion Korean won).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a July 26 report by E Asia Economy, the alleged perpetrator, “Mr. A,” made a promise to victims that they would receive “high profits.” He has been charged with fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. A is purportedly responsible for the operation of the fraudulent enterprise from September 2021 to August 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven though Mr. A did not conduct any cryptocurrency business at all, he promised to return high profits of 3-8% per month,\u201d E Asia Economy said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The venture was purportedly profitable, as Mr. A reportedly utilized new investment funds to distribute profits to early investors, a practice that is comparable to a Ponzi scheme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UK hacker faces prison for his Coinbase dummy website scam, an El Paso man’s crypto “Ponzi” fueled his lavish lifestyle,\u00a0and Washington DFI flags the latest crypto fraud. A computer hacker from the United Kingdom has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for his involvement in the scheme, which involved the compromise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":85451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11476,21],"tags":[150,1135,11878,1502,12490],"class_list":["post-85448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hacks-and-scams","category-news","tag-coinbase","tag-fraud","tag-phishing-2","tag-regulation","tag-scams-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Hacker-Sentenced-to-3.5-Years-for-900K-Coinbase-Scam-Report.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}