Hacker emailed the Ripoff Report CEO, shared a video accessing the exec's account, and asked for a $90,000 payment.
A Cypriot national has been extradited to the US to face charges of hacking into review portal Ripoff Report, extorting the company, and selling access to its backend to a third-party.
The man, named Joshua Polloso Epifaniou, 21 years, and a resident of Nicosia, Cyprus, arrived in the US on Friday and is scheduled to be arraigned in front of a US court on Monday, July 20, where he'll be formally charged.
🌀 The Ripoff Report hack
"Epifaniou and his co-conspirator removed at least 100 complaints from the ROR database, charging SEO Company's 'clients' approximately $3,000 to $5,000 for removal of each complaint," the US Department of Justice said in a press release on Saturday.
The court documents did not identify Epifaniou's partner, but a Fox 11 investigation claims the Cypriot hacker worked with Pierre Zarokian, the founder of Submit Express, a reputation management company.
🌀 Pre-2016 hacks
In addition to his Ripoff Report hack and extortion, US officials have also accused Epifaniou of hacking and extorting other websites between October 2014 and November 2016.
To extort victims, officials said Epifaniou used two techniques.
He used security bugs to hack target sites and then steal user data himself, or he bought the victim site's user data from other hackers and then used it to extort the victim into paying a ransom.
A Cypriot national has been extradited to the US to face charges of hacking into review portal Ripoff Report, extorting the company, and selling access to its backend to a third-party.
The man, named Joshua Polloso Epifaniou, 21 years, and a resident of Nicosia, Cyprus, arrived in the US on Friday and is scheduled to be arraigned in front of a US court on Monday, July 20, where he'll be formally charged.
🌀 The Ripoff Report hack
"Epifaniou and his co-conspirator removed at least 100 complaints from the ROR database, charging SEO Company's 'clients' approximately $3,000 to $5,000 for removal of each complaint," the US Department of Justice said in a press release on Saturday.
The court documents did not identify Epifaniou's partner, but a Fox 11 investigation claims the Cypriot hacker worked with Pierre Zarokian, the founder of Submit Express, a reputation management company.
🌀 Pre-2016 hacks
In addition to his Ripoff Report hack and extortion, US officials have also accused Epifaniou of hacking and extorting other websites between October 2014 and November 2016.
To extort victims, officials said Epifaniou used two techniques.
He used security bugs to hack target sites and then steal user data himself, or he bought the victim site's user data from other hackers and then used it to extort the victim into paying a ransom.
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