Man charged with hacking celebrities to sell unreleased scripts

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged a Bahaman man with copyright infringement and identity theft for hacking into celebrities’ email accounts and attempting to sell stolen scripts, sex tapes and Social Security numbers.

{mosads}”This is just a sample of things I can get,” the man, Alonzo Knowles, 23, wrote when he sent a sex tape to an undercover agent he believed to be a buyer, according to the complaint. “I have more stuff along these lines and can get more if you’re interested.”

Knowles allegedly contacted a famous radio host offering to sell the scripts for upcoming episodes of a popular TV show. His plan began to unravel when the radio host reached out to the show’s network, which in turn contacted the Department of Homeland Security.

At the behest of law enforcement, the radio host arranged a video chat with Knowles and an undercover agent who expressed interest in purchasing the scripts.

In those calls, Knowles claimed to have “exclusive content” that was “really profitable” and worth “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” showing the agent a list of 130 celebrity email addresses he had in his possession, according to prosecutors.

He also allegedly offered to sell “a very popular A-list celebrity SSN” along with “30 unreleased tracks towards their upcoming album.”

During a final Dec. 21 meeting with the undercover agent, Knowles attempted to sell approximately 15 stolen movie and television scripts and the Social Security Numbers of three professional athletes and a movie actress in exchange for $80,000, according to prosecutors. He was then arrested.

Prosecutors said Knowles told the undercover agent that he gained access to the email accounts through use of “a virus” and through a simple phishing scheme — a common technique in which Knowles sent fake text messages alerting victims their accounts had been hacked and urging them to provide passwords that he could then use to access the accounts.

Knowles would often target a given celebrity’s close contacts in order to gain access, because if he is “going after a high-profile celebrity,” it can be “pretty hard to get them,” the complaint alleges.

None of the victims nor the TV shows were named in the complaint.

The case comes a year after North Korean hackers laid bare Sony Pictures’ networks, exposing the emails of company executives as well as actors.

“This case has all of the elements of  the kind of blockbuster script the defendant is alleged to have stolen: hacks into celebrities’ private emails, identity theft, and attempts to sell victims’ information to the highest bidder,” district attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, these circumstances are all too real.”