West Midlands hacker locked up after US Secret Service investigation
A hacker from the West Midlands who illegally accessed social media and email accounts has been jailed after an investigation involving the United States Secret Service.
Gurvinder Bhangu, 23, from Hamstead, has been jailed after taking control of an American victim's accounts and then trying to blackmail the owner.
He also managed to illegally hack into other email, social media and online accounts of two other victims.
He did this through social engineering, where personal information is obtained through deception and compromised details used to reset account security information.
The investigation was started in 2017 by the West Midlands Regional Cyber Crime Unit alongside the United States Secret Service and Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office REACT Taskforce in California.
Bhangu has been convicted of blackmail, fraud by false representation and offences under the Computer Misuse Act.
He was jailed for 21 months at Birmingham Crown Court on October 25 and ordered to pay £4,600 compensation.
Online safety advice from the National Cyber Security Centre can be found at ncsc.gov.uk
