A Florida man, linked to the notorious Scattered Spider hacking gang, has pleaded guilty to charges related to cryptocurrency thefts which have netted hundreds of thousands of dollars.
20-year-old Noah Michael Urban of Palm Coast, Florida, who was arrested in January 2024, has admitted committing crimes related to SIM swap fraud, aggravated identity theft, and the theft of US $800,000 worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum from five cryptocurrency investors whose digital wallets were compromised.
Prosecutors described how Urban and other members of the Scattered Spider gang stole victims’ personal information to help them hijack the phone numbers of cryptocurrency investors, and then abuse their unauthorised access to seize control of victims’ online accounts, and break into their cryptocurrency wallets.
“Scattered Spider” become infamous as the cybercrime syndicate behind the headline-generating hacks of the Las Vegas casinos MGM Resorts and Caesars, amongst other high profile victims.
Scattered Spider made a name for themselves through the audacity of their attacks, which saw them pose as a IT staff to trick workers into handing over login credentials and one-time-passwords, or running tools which gave them remote access tools to internal systems. In some cases, gang members had no qualms about contacting targeted individuals via phone in an attempt to socially engineer them into handing over sensitive information.
Urban, who was better known online by handles including “King Bob” (a reference to the “Minions” movie, “Sosa”, and “Elijah”), had gained himself widespread notoriety after leaking songs from famous music artists such as Ariana Grande, Lil Uzi Vert, and Playboi Carti – disrupting planned album releases. The theft of the music is believed to have taken place after Urban broke into the accounts of music industry executives via SIM swap attacks.
Urban’s luck ran out in January 2024 when he was arrested by law enforcement agencies. During the raid, Urban was reported to have attempted to wipe his computer and social media history, in an apparent attempt to destroy evidence.
As part of Urban’s plea deal, he has agreed to forfeit his jewellery, currency, and cryptocurrency assets, and will pay US $13 million restitution to 59 victims. He is expected to be sentenced within the next 75 days.
Charges against some of Urban’s alleged co-conspirators remain in place, while other suspected members of the Scattered Spider gang – some of whom appear to have done a poor job at covering their tracks – continue to live seemingly carefree for now in countries across the globe.