A Dacula man has pleaded guilty to targeting rappers and professional and college athletes’ Apple accounts in order to steal money and pay for travel, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Kwamaine Jerell Ford, 27, entered a guilty plea to one count of computer fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft on March 28. He had been indicted on six counts each of wire fraud, computer fraud, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft in April 2018.
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Ford began his hacking scheme in March 2015, according to U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak. He obtained Apple login credentials from his victims using a phishing scheme, which includes a message that appears to be from a legitimate source and prompts the victim to enter information like their username and password.
Ford’s primary targets were NFL and NBA players, college athletes and rappers, the Justice Department said in a press release. Ford sent “thousands” of phishing messages from email accounts intended to appear like Apple customer support representatives. The emails instructed victims to send their usernames, passwords and answers to security questions under the guise of the need to reset accounts or send videos to victims.
“Dozens of victims” sent their personal information to Ford through the phishing scheme, according to the Justice Department.
Once Ford had the login information, he changed the accounts’ usernames, passwords and associated emails so he controlled them and the legitimate owners could not access them, the Justice Department said.
Through those accounts, Ford found credit card information he used to pay for “thousands of dollars in air travel, hotel stays, other travel expenses, furniture, and money transfers to online payment accounts under his control,” according to the Justice Department’s release.
Ford will be sentenced on June 24.
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