Usually it’s criminal groups and organizations that perform serious cryptocurrency thefts. This time, however, is a Boston high-school valedictorian who committed a $2-million crypto crime.
The name of the student is Joel Ortiz, who was named the valedictorian at his Massachusetts high-school, and who was also known for his proficiency in programming and high-tech skills, according to Fox News. He apparently hacked investors’ accounts, including mobile phones and computers, and stole a minimum amount of $2 million worth of digital coins.
In the middle of July, he was taken into custody and the bail out stands at $1 million as of then. Also, the student faces serious legal accusations, including hacking into computers, identity theft and more.
What Ortiz did was gather information about the technical details on his “victims” phones, stealing their passwords and ultimately getting access to their digital wallets and eventually coins, in the form of Bitcoin and other.
Again, Fox News reported that the student used impersonation on several occasions, trying to lure people’s friends and family to grant him some digital currencies or pretending to be someone else and get a brand new SIM card, which allowed him to access the mobile phones of his victims.
The victims primarily come from California, now amounting to over 20 in number.
Apart from the cryptocurrency crime, Ortiz appears to have been an excellent student, leader of the robotics team and an enthusiast to teach coding and computer science to students.
Such crimes only signal the vulnerability of the entire system. Owning and trading cryptocurrencies and protecting them is not an easy task. Investors should be more wary as to how they protect their digital assets and how they interact with the environment around them to protect themselves and their wealth, irrespective of the amount.