Singaporean deceived Amazon, Google for cloud services to mine cryptocurrency
channelnewsasia.comSINGAPORE: A 32-year-old man who faces criminal charges in the United States on Monday (Mar 7) admitted in a Singapore court to impersonating two men to deceive Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google for cloud computing services that he used to mine cryptocurrency.Singaporean Ho Jun Jia, also known as Matthew Ho, was charged with identity theft and wire fraud in the US in October 2019.
He was unemployed when he committed the offences.One of his victims was Marc Merrill, the co-founder of video game developer Riot Games.Ho used personal and credit card information obtained from a Dark Web forum to cheat AWS and Google into providing cloud computing services worth about US$5.2 million (S$7.1 million) and US$250,000 respectively.Between Nov 21, 2017, and Mar 1, 2018, he used this computing power to mine about 1,468 units of the cryptocurrency Ether.He sold about 203 units of the illegally acquired Ether, making more than S$347,000, which he spent on personal expenses.Ho pleaded guilty on Monday to 11 charges, including offences under the Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act and cheating by personation.
He is set to return to court next month for mitigation and sentencing.The court heard that in 2017, Ho forged US driving licences for others on a Darkweb forum that styled itself as "#1 Fraud Community".In return for his services, Ho was given access to a "VIP" section of the forum that contained individuals' names, addresses and credit card details.Around Oct 19, 2017, he obtained the information of 70 individuals including Mr Merrill and another man named Harold Borland.Using Mr Merrill's personal information, Ho gained access to the developer's AMEX bank account and changed the email address associated with the account to a
