British man arrested in Spain over Celeb Twitter hack

A British man has been arrested in Spain in connection with a Twitter hack in 2020 that saw over 130 celebrity accounts hacked to scam their followers out of Bitcoin.

Twitter confirmed that a social engineering attack that was coordinated between criminals had allowed them to post Tweets from celebrity accounts offering to send $2,000 for every $1,000 sent to a Bitcoin address.

22-year-old Joseph O’Connor, known online as PlugWalkJoe, who had previously given interviews to the media about the incident, was arrested today, July 21. He was arrested in Estepona by Spanish National Police at the request of the FBI.

He is also accused of hacking accounts on other social media platforms such as Snapchat and TikTok. He has also been found to have been cyberstalking a young victim online, according to Sky News.

The scam messages were posted on accounts that belonged to Barack Obama, Jeff Bezos, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West and Bill Gates, among other high-profile celebs.

British man arrested in Spain over Celeb Twitter hack
British man arrested in Spain over Celeb Twitter hack

The Department of Justice said that the criminals’ Bitcoin address received over 400 transfers of over $117,000 (£90,000), with none of the stolen money being returned.

O’Connor is the second British citizen that has been arrested in connection with the hacking incident, along with Bognor Regis teenager Mason Sheppard who was accused of involvement last August.


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Written by

Laura Kemp

Originally from UK, Laura is based in Axarquia and is a writer for the Euro Weekly News covering news and features. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.

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