ATLANTA - Kwamaine Jerell Ford has pleaded guilty to logging
into Apple accounts belonging to high-profile professional athletes and
musicians without authorization and stealing credit card information from
several of those victims.
“Ford tricked his victims into providing their Apple account
passwords and stole sensitive, personal information from the accounts,” said
U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak. “After stealing credit card numbers
belonging to several professional athletes, he brazenly spent thousands of
dollars on personal expenses charged to the athletes’ accounts.”
“The high profile victims in this case are an example that
no matter who you are, hackers like Ford are trying to get your personal
information,” said Chris Hacker Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “This
case demonstrates the need to be careful in protecting personal information and
passwords, especially in response to suspicious e-mails. Hopefully this is a
lesson for everyone, not just the victims in this case.”
According to U.S. Attorney Pak, the charges and other
information presented in court: Beginning in at least March 2015, Ford obtained
login credentials for Apple accounts belonging to victims primarily through a
phishing scheme, which is a scheme in which the perpetrator sends a message
that purports to be from a legitimate source. Ford primarily targeted college
and professional athletes, including NBA and NFL players, and rappers in his
scheme. Ford sent thousands of phishing emails to his intended victims from
email accounts he set up to spoof legitimate Apple customer service accounts.
Ford, posing as an Apple customer support representative, requested that the
victims send him their username and password or answers to security challenge
questions, which Ford claimed was needed either to reset their Apple accounts
or to access videos that individuals were purportedly trying to send the
victims. Dozens of victims provided their login credentials based on the
phishing scheme.
After obtaining the victims’ login credentials, Ford logged
into their Apple accounts and attempted to take over the accounts. Specifically,
he attempted to reset the account password, change the contact email account to
an email address he controlled, and alter the security challenge questions. As
a result, the victims could not log into their own accounts unless they
contacted Apple by phone and proved their identity. Apple records showed
hundreds of unauthorized logins to victim Apple accounts.
After gaining control of the victims’ accounts, Ford found
credit card information belonging to several of the victims. Ford then used the
stolen credit card numbers to pay for thousands of dollars in air travel, hotel
stays, other travel expenses, furniture, and money transfers to online payment
accounts under his control.
On April 17, 2018, Kwamaine Jerell Ford, 27, of Dacula,
Georgia, was indicted on six counts each of wire fraud, computer fraud, access
device fraud, and aggravated identity theft. He pleaded guilty to one count of
computer fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Sentencing is scheduled for June 24, 2019, at
10:30 before U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr.
This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan P. Kitchens, Deputy Chief of
the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section, is prosecuting the case.
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Vivek Kothari investigated the case prior to the
indictment.
Posts
