Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter Target Resellers of Hacked Accounts
Summary: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter this week seized hundreds of accounts tied to members of OGUsers, a forum where thousands of people trade hijacked social media usernames, with Facebook targeting accounts mainly on Instagram that were stolen through hacking, coercion, extortion, sextortion, SIM swapping, and swatting. Leaked OGUsers databases show one middleman, Noah Hawkins of Canada, ran two bitcoin wallets that recorded over 6,700 transactions totaling more than 243 bitcoins, roughly $8.5 million, on which he would have earned about $425,000 in commissions.
Bottom line: The resale market for stolen usernames moved roughly $8.5 million through just two wallets belonging to one escrow middleman, and the platforms say this public enforcement is meant to drive up costs for traffickers rather than end the trade. Account takeover here is not a nuisance: targets are threatened with swatting and exposure of personal and financial data until they hand over their handles.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
- Data Breaches
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