Who was Brett Johnson and what did he do?
Johnson ran the ShadowCrew network, where he sold fraudulent bank accounts, prepaid debit cards and collaborated extensively with others to combine phishing scams and the CVV1 hack. ShadowCrew moderator Albert Gonzalez was sentenced to 20 years for masterminding the online theft of 170 million card numbers.
How did Brett Johnson, the original Internet godfather?
Johnson staged a fake car accident to finance his wedding day. By the time he started using the web, it was a natural progression to shift his fraudulent behaviour online. He started by scamming eBay buyers. Then he exploited a loophole when a Canadian judge ruled that satellite dishes can be “pirated” legally (in Canada but not the US).
Where did Brett Johnson hijack his IP address?
As a simple example, Johnson used to hijack IP addresses in Eastern Europe when committing identity fraud as they were less likely to be reported to the US, due to the deteriorating political relationships between the countries. Everything matters. Detail matters most.
Why was Brett Johnson on the Most Wanted list?
Johnson was on the notorious US most wanted list in 2006, before being arrested for cybercrime and laundering $4m. I’ve never met anyone whose name has been on that list, and so our encounter comes with some level of subliminal intimidation. Turns out, he’s both casual and friendly and I’m keeping an open mind.
How did Brett Johnson get on the Internet?
Johnson staged a fake car accident to finance his wedding day. By the time he started using the web, it was a natural progression to shift his fraudulent behaviour online. He started by scamming eBay buyers.
Johnson was on the notorious US most wanted list in 2006, before being arrested for cybercrime and laundering $4m. I’ve never met anyone whose name has been on that list, and so our encounter comes with some level of subliminal intimidation. Turns out, he’s both casual and friendly and I’m keeping an open mind.
How did Brett Johnson get his first marriage?
His first marriage in 1994 was paid for courtesy of insurance fraud. Johnson staged a fake car accident to finance his wedding day. By the time he started using the web, it was a natural progression to shift his fraudulent behaviour online. He started by scamming eBay buyers.
As a simple example, Johnson used to hijack IP addresses in Eastern Europe when committing identity fraud as they were less likely to be reported to the US, due to the deteriorating political relationships between the countries. Everything matters. Detail matters most.
