26-year-old Kent local Grant West is facing possible jail-time after admitting to a series of hacking offenses in which he stole and sold the digital information of tens of thousands of people using phishing emails on the dark-web.
Mr. West allegedly harvested the names and credit card information of his victims, which he then sold on to other criminal entities. The information was obtained through a fraudulent feedback survey from the food-delivery app Just Eat in which users unwittingly handed over their online information.
Among the offenses Mr. West reportedly pled guilty to were conspiracy to commit fraud and drug-related crimes which were alleged to have been committed between July and December 2015 when the accused
The number of victims of Mr. West's online activities was reportedly as high as 165,000 and resulted in the theft of as much as US$680,000 worth of bitcoin shares which police seized along with the details of around 63,000 credit cards. Police raids also uncovered US$34,000 worth of cannabis from Mr. Grant's property.
