Brit faces 70 years in prison after admitting to hacking Elon Musk's Twitter account

A British man is facing a hefty stint in prison after pleading guilty to hacking over 100 Twitter accounts, including CEO Elon Musk's.

Joseph James O'Connor a.k.a. PlugwalkJoe, 23, took part in one of the biggest hacks in the history of social media, alongside fellow Brit Mason Sheppard and Americans Graham Ivan Clark, Nima Fazeli.

The hack took place in July 2020 and saw the group hijack more than 100 Twitter accounts of high status people and celebrities.

Alamy Stock Photo/ Bob Daemmrich

These included the likes of Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Kim Kardashian, Joe Biden and the now CEO of the platform, Elon Musk.

O'Connor was extradited from Spain last month on 26 April and has since pleaded guilty to a series of charges in New York.

The hack was part of a larger Bitcoin scam, O'Connor hijacking Twitter accounts to then post tweets asking followers to send Bitcoin.

In the posts, O'Connor - posing as whoever's profile he was on - offered to double followers' money if they sent over a sum.

One of the tweets, as posted on American rapper Wiz Khalifa's account, reads: "I am giving back to my community due to Covid-19!

"All Bitcoin sent to my address below will be sent back doubled. If you send $1,000, I will send back $2,000!

"[...] Only does this for the next 30 minutes! Enjoy."

Twitter

O'Connor's scam was described as 'flagrant and malicious' in a statement by US Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite Jr, who continued by noting the scam called 'substantial emotional harm' to those who were 'harassed, threatened and extorted' by O'Connor - thousands of around 350 million Twitter users who saw the tweets having fallen for it.

Assistant Attorney General Polite Jr continued: "Like many criminal actors, O'Connor tried to stay anonymous by using a computer to hide behind stealth accounts and aliases from outside the United States.

"But this plea shows that our investigators and prosecutors will identify, locate, and bring to justice such criminals to ensure they face the consequences for their crimes."

President Barack Obama. Credit Alamy Stock Photo

Alongside admitting to hacking into the accounts of over 100 Twitter accounts and pleading guilty to extortion, multiple counts of computer intrusion, wire fraud and money laundering, O'Connor also pleaded guilty to stealing $794,000 in cryptocurrency from a New York crypto group, cyberstalking and gaining access to a high-profile TikTok account, alongside other hijacking social media crimes.

O'Connor faces a maximum of 77 years in prison and is currently set to be sentenced on Friday, 23 June.

If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, you can contact Victim Support on 08 08 16 89 111, start a live chat, or visit the website, all of which are available 24 hours seven days a week.

Topics: Elon Musk, Twitter, Social Media, Crime, True Crime

Poppy Bilderbeck

Poppy Bilderbeck is a Senior Journalist at LADbible Group. She graduated from The University of Manchester in 2021 with a First in English Literature and Drama, where alongside her studies she was Editor-in-Chief of The Tab Manchester. Poppy is most comfortable when chatting about all things mental health, is proving a drama degree is far from useless by watching and reviewing as many TV shows and films as possible and is such a crisp fanatic the office has been forced to release them in batches.