Cyber crook stole the details of millions of online shoppers to sell on the dark web
Hacker Grant West, 26, broke into 200 companies' sites and sold on the details of their customers
A BITCOIN cyber crook stole personal details of 78 million people to flog on the dark web and fund ‘a bit on the side’ in Las Vegas.
Master hacker Grant West, 26, broke into the computers of 200 major retailers and suppliers to target the confidential data of their customers.
The twisted techie used a laptop belonging to girlfriend Rachael Brookes, 26, to steal details of 165,000 customers of fast food delivery giant Just Eat by sending ‘phishing’ emails offering a £10 reward for completing a bogus survey.
He bought his lover Brooks a £40 bikini for her help in his scams - while buying a sports car for himself and blowing tens of thousands of pounds on gambling and womanising trips to Las Vegas.
Brooks broke down sobbing at London’s Southwark crown court yesterday as Judge Michael Gledhill, QC, spared her jail and gave her a two-year community service order.
The judge told the mum-of-one she “fell, quite literally, into the arms of a villain and a rogue.”
West used the pseudonym ‘Courvoisier’ - after the premier brandy - to sell details of his victims to fraudsters through the dark web.
He was paid in Bitcoin which he converted to cash to spend on a £40,000 Audi A4 coupe’ and hbis regular jaunts to the Nevada playground.
The fun-loving cyber criminal was dramatically arrested by undercover cops in a first class rail carriage from Wales to London in September last year as he accessed the dark web on a laptop.
Other passengers applauded as cop grabbed his computer before he was able to log out from his heavily encrypted password, the first such arrest of a cyber crim in this country.
Police discovered West had targeted companies worldwide including Apple, Uber, Sainsbury’s, Ladbrokes, Asda and Argos.
A computer memory device was found in a caravan where he lived on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, with 78 million usernames and passwords and details of 63,000 credit and debit cards on it.
Officers from the Met’s Cyber Crime Unit also recovered £25,000 in cash from the caravan and £500,000 worth of Bitcoin from accounts dotted worldwide - the first time the London force has ever seized crypto-currency.
As well as personal details, West also sold cannabis on the dark web and guides on how to launch cyber attacks.
Half a kilo of pot was recovered in Kent storage units rented by West.
Further investigations revealed that West had made several trips to Las Vegas which he funded with 47,000 illicit sales made on a website used by hackers on the ‘dark web.’
West’s scams eventually came to light after several Just Eat customers became suspicious about the phishing email encouraging them to open a poison link and reported it to Action Fraud.
Police traced computer IP addresses to girlfriend Brookes’ home in Denbigh, north Wales, where she used the stolen card details to purchase goods.
Brookes admitted conspiracy to defraud halfway through her trial in March.
West, of Minster-on-Sea, Kent, admitted two counts of conspiracy to defraud, unauthorised modification of a computer, separate offences of offering, attempting and possession with intent to supply cannabis, criminal property and money laundering.
His sentencing was adjourned until 25 May.