Recently a Twitter hack targeting some of the platform’s most high-profile users by creating chaos on the site, with Twitter temporarily restricting verified users from posting at all. The hack had users like Bill Gates, Kanye West, and Obama tweeting out a bitcoin scam to millions of followers.
Following that a 17-year-old Florida teenager has been arrested over the hack. According to New York Times by the age of 10, Graham Ivan Clark was playing the video game Minecraft, in part to escape what he told friends was an unhappy home life. In Minecraft, he became known as an adept scammer with an explosive temper who cheated people out of their money, several friends said. At 15, he joined an online hackers’ forum. By 16, he had gravitated to the world of Bitcoin, appearing to involve himself in a theft of $856,000 of the cryptocurrency, though he was never charged for it, social media and legal records show. On Instagram posts afterward, he showed up with designer sneakers and a bling-encrusted Rolex.
Like many young gamers, Clark dabbled with YouTube, building an audience playing Minecraft in PVP-oriented servers. He reportedly used the username Open, or OpenHCF. The Times report tracked down a number of players who had been scammed by someone with the same username–usually offering to sell a username or a rare cape and then blocking the user once money had been sent.
One player described how he offered to buy Clark’s own username “Open” for $100, but then was blocked once the transaction was sent. “I was just kind of a dumb teenager, and looking back, there’s no way I should have ever done this,” the user told the Times. “Why should I ever have trusted this dude?”
After the Twitter hack, Clark is being charged as an adult with 30 felonies. He had previously been involved in a large bitcoin theft, but was not charged due to being a minor.
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