This Guy Tried Blackmailing Tim Cook For Rs 70 Lakhs, Wanted To Get Rich But Got Jailed Instead

A convicted felon who attacked Apple in 2017 finally got punished for his crimes on December 2nd, 2019.

ZDNet/Tim Cook

In 2017, a 22-year old from London made an attempt to blackmail Apple in the form of $100,000 in iTunes cards by claiming (falsely though) that he had control over 319 million iCloud accounts. He threatened to sell those account details and reset them all.

Apple then reported this extortion attempt to law enforcement agencies in the United States as well as the United Kingdom, including Britain¡¯s National Crime Agency that later lead the investigation.

As per the report by Apple Insider, Officers from the NCA¡¯s National Cyber Crime Unit arrested the troublemaker -- who goes by the name of Kerem Albayrak -- at his home address in north London. All his electronic devices were seized, including his phone, computers, and hard drive.

NCA investigators found phone records showing Albayrak was the spokesperson for a hacker group calling themselves ¡®Turkish Crime Family.¡¯

He bragged stating ¡°the attack will happen 99.9%. Even if it doesn¡¯t you¡¯re still going to get A LOT of media attention.¡±

Upon investigation, Apple and the authorities found that there was no evidence that Albayrak or the crime family he says he¡¯s affiliated with had compromised any accounts. The accounts that he showed access to were previously compromised accounts that were inactive.

Reuters

When asked about why he decided to do this, he stated, ¡°Once you get sucked into it [cybercrime], it just escalates and it makes it interesting when it¡¯s illegal. When you have power on the internet it¡¯s like fame and everyone respects you, and everyone is chasing that right now.¡±

According to Anna Smith, a senior investigative officer for the NCA,"Albayrak wrongly believed he could escape justice after hacking into two accounts and attempting to blackmail a large multi-national corporation. During the investigation, it became clear that he was seeking fame and fortune. But cyber-crime doesn't pay."

For his crimes, Albayrak pleaded guilty on December 2nd, 2019. He was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison, which was later suspended subject to carrying out 300 hours of unpaid work, complying with a six-month electronic curfew.