A hacker from Connecticut has pleaded guilty to stealing cryptocurrency from the regulars of darknet resources. Now he faces up to thirty years in prison, although in fact he is unlikely to receive such a long term.
Stealing on the Darknet
Thirty—five-year-old hacker Michael Richo has pleaded guilty to luring cryptocurrency from visitors to sites located on the darknet – a non-public, anonymous segment of the Internet. With the help of phishing, Rico was able to steal bitcoins for an amount approximately corresponding to $ 365 thousand.
The main method of his activity was the creation of phishing pages imitating popular darknet sites, or rather their authorization pages. These fake pages were hosted directly on his home laptop.
With the help of such pages, Rico lured regular visitors of the darknet sites to their usernames and passwords. The hacker used these details to log into the victims’ accounts and transfer bitcoins from their wallets to his own.
Rico also used another, more technically advanced method: he distributed links on various forums, allegedly leading directly to the resources of the darknet. In fact, all connections to these sites were established through Rico’s own server, which allowed him to track all traffic and all data that the user exchanged with the site.
The hacker actively converted bitcoins into dollars, transferring funds to Bank of America accounts or Green Dot prepaid debit cards. Sometimes he also cashed out funds via Western Union or MoneyGram.