14 DAY TRIAL // A Georgia hacker admitted in court that he broke into the Apple accounts of several high-profile users, including professional athletes and musicians, in order to steal credit card information.
27-year-old Kwamaine Jerell Ford used nothing more than a standard phishing attack which relied on emails sent from mailboxes pretending to belong to Apple and requesting login credentials.
The man posed as an Apple customer support representative and told victims he needed their usernames, passwords, and answers to security questions for what he claimed to be an Apple account reset.
Once he obtained their credentials, the hacker changed the email addresses and passwords, thus locking targets out of their accounts. Regaining access to the compromised accounts wasn’t possible without reaching out to Apple support.
No specifics on the high-profile victims
The Justice Department doesn’t provide any specifics on the victims, but says that they include NBA and NFL players, as well as rappers. The stolen credit card data was then used to pay for thousands of dollars in air travel, hotel stays, furniture, and money transfers to various accounts that the hacker owned.
“The high profile victims in this case are an example that no matter who you are, hackers like Ford are trying to get your personal information,” said Chris Hacker Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “This case demonstrates the need to be careful in protecting personal information and passwords, especially in response to suspicious e-mails. Hopefully this is a lesson for everyone, not just the victims in this case.”
The hacker is now indicted on six counts each of wire fraud, computer fraud, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft, as per an official press release (embedded below). The man pleaded guilty to one count of computer fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, and a sentence is expected on June 24.