Foreign Hacker Sentenced in $1M Scam Targeting Federal Employees and Contractors – By Aaron Boyd (Nextgov) / Sept 28 2020
A foreign national charged with setting up fake government websites, hacking federal employees’ emails and defrauding agency contractors of almost $1 million has been sentenced to a year and a half in prison.
According to federal investigators, Olumide Ogunremi, 43, a citizen of Nigeria who also goes by the name Tony Williams, was part of a criminal “ring” that using phishing emails and counterfeit websites to trick federal employees into giving up their digital credentials, which were then used to buy goods to sell on the black market.
In the latter half of 2013, Ogunremi and his co-conspirators sent phishing emails to employees at several federal agencies directing them to fake websites, “including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” according to a Justice Department release.
“Unwitting employees of the agencies visited the fake web pages and provided their email account usernames and passwords,” Justice officials said.
The group then used those valid credentials to place orders—mostly for printer toner cartridges—with vendors contracted through the General Services Administration. The commercial goods were then shipped to scammers’ addresses in New Jersey before being repackaged and sent to Nigeria to be sold through underground markets.
Continue to article: https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2020/09/foreign-hacker-sentenced-1m-scam-targeting-federal-employees-and-contractors/168816/
