Feds After Teen Hacker for Millions in Bitcoin and a Slick Sports Car

The U.S. Department of Justice is actively working to recover millions in Bitcoin taken by a young hacker. Ahmad Wagaafe Hared, who used his stolen wealth to buy a sports car, faces the consequences of his past actions.

SIM-swapping is the method Hared and his accomplices used. It’s a deceptive trick where hackers fool cell phone providers into giving them control of someone’s phone. By acting as the phone owner, they gain unauthorized access to sensitive data. This method particularly helps them overcome security measures, like text-based two-factor authentication.

Back in 2016, when he was 18, Hared, from Tucson, Arizona, collaborated with Matthew Gene Ditman from Nevada. Together, they targeted cell phone providers’ customer service to get information on SIM cards. Their main targets? Crypto executives in northern California, a region renowned for its bustling tech community, Silicon Valley. This area once housed Coinbase, a leading U.S. exchange, before it transitioned to a fully remote operation.

Brian Krebs, a renowned cybersecurity journalist, shared insights into Hared’s darknet activities. Under the username ‘winblo,’ Hared earned a reputation for being active and respected, especially in a marketplace that traded in coveted social media accounts.

From his illicit earnings, Hared splurged on a BMW i8, priced around $150,000 then. Going beyond just hacking, the indictment reveals that Hared and Ditman even contacted some victims, aiming to extort more money.

The duo’s criminal run was halted in 2019. Thanks to a thorough FBI investigation, both Hared and Ditman were apprehended. Their sentencing is pending.