Two men are being charged by the U.S. (DoJ) with hacking and illegally taking over email and social media accounts belonging to multiple NBA and NFL players.
Between December 2017 and April 2019, the two hackers – Trevontae Washington from Louisiana and Ronnie Magrehbi from Florida – hacked and took over social media accounts ( Facebook , Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat) belonging to NBA and NFL players.
The two men are charged with conspiracy to defraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, and computer misuse, which carries a maximum sentence of five years and a fine of up to $250,000.
While Washington only sold access to the compromised accounts, for amounts ranging from $500 to $1,000, Magrehbi did not stop there, but also kidnapped the NFL player whose accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat) he hacked and took over. Magrehbi kidnapped a player, demanding payment in exchange for restoring access to the compromised accounts. In at least one case, the player gave the money requested, part of which was transferred to a personal bank account controlled by Magrehbi. However, the player never regained access to his online accounts.
Washington and Magrehbi used the same tactic to gain access to the accounts of NBA and NFL players. Specifically, they would contact them via Instagram, with a link that encouraged them to click on a Facebook site that supposedly solicited support from professional athletes. Once the victims clicked on the link from their personal devices, they were taken to a page that looked like a Facebook login. After entering credentials , they were “locked out” of multiple social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.
It is worth noting that earlier this year, NFL team social media accounts were also hacked by the hacking group “OurMine,” which managed to take them over briefly in January 2020.
As BleepingComputer reported at the time, OurMine hacked into the Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts of the NFL and the following 15 teams, which had tens of millions of followers: Dallas Cowboys, Buffalo Bills, Houston Texans, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears, Kansas City Chiefs, Green Bay Packers, Arizona Cardinals, Cleveland Browns, Denver Broncos, Indianapolis Colts, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The hackers took over these social media accounts within about two hours and then compromised the accounts of other high-profile victims, including Enrique Hernández (second baseman for the LA Dodgers), Matt Raub (director, producer, writer), and Eduardo Saverin (co-founder of Facebook).
OurMine takes over accounts of high-profile companies and tech executives who do not implement two-factor authentication (2FA), leaking credentials it has obtained from breaches .
The group's victims include the following: BBC, New York Times, Netflix, Sony Music Global, National Geographic, Sundar Pichai, Jack Dorsey and many other major companies and executives, with the attacks dating back to 2016 when the group took over the Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest accounts of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
