Five Alleged Scammers Federally Charged With Running Crypto Phishing Scheme by DOJ

The Department of Justice (DOJ) recently unsealed charges against five alleged scammers for running a crypto phishing scam that cost victims millions of dollars.

According to a new press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, Tyler Buchanan of the UK and four other American defendants are being charged with charges ranging from conspiracy to wire fraud to aggravated identity theft.

“The following defendants are charged by a federal grand jury indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of conspiracy, and one count of aggravated identity theft:

• Ahmed Hossam Eldin Elbadawy, 23, a.k.a. ‘AD,’ of College Station, Texas;
• Noah Michael Urban, 20, a.k.a. ‘Sosa’ and ‘Elijah,’ of Palm Coast, Florida;
• Evans Onyeaka Osiebo, 20, of Dallas, Texas; and
• Joel Martin Evans, 25, a.k.a. ‘joeleoli,’ of Jacksonville, North Carolina.”

According to the press release, Evans was arrested this week in North Carolina.

The DOJ alleges that the men executed an SMS phishing scheme involving stealing credentials from certain companies’ employees, gaining unauthorized access to victims’ crypto wallets in some cases.

Says United States Attorney Martin Estrada,

“We allege that this group of cybercriminals perpetrated a sophisticated scheme to steal intellectual property and proprietary information worth tens of millions of dollars and steal personal information belonging to hundreds of thousands of individuals.

As this case shows, phishing and hacking have become increasingly sophisticated and can result in enormous losses. If something about the text or email you received or website you’re viewing seems off, it probably is.”

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Bruce Rolff/Natalia Siiatovskaia