UMass Student Held On $1M Bail For Allegedly Hacking $5M+

BOSTON, MA —Police in California arrested a 20-year-old UMass student — who was once valedictorian of his Boston high school — accused of being part of a ring of criminals who hacked dozens of cellphones to steal more than $5 million in cryptocurrency.

Joel Ortiz, who was valedictorian at his Boston high school and studies IT at UMass Boston, allegedly hacked at least 40 cellphones, including several during a high-profile conference in New York City in May. Police arrested him at LAX just before he got on an international flight.

The Allston man is now facing 28 charges: 13 counts of identity theft, 13 counts of hacking, and two counts of grand theft, according to the tech and science online magazine Motherboard, which broke the story earlier this week.

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He's reportedly still in jail after a judge set his bail to $1 million, awaiting a plea hearing.

Motherboard details Ortiz's arrest, and just how he hacked the cellphones and stole millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. (If you're not sure what cryptocurrency is, think: Bitcoin).

"This is the first reported case against someone who allegedly used the increasingly popular technique known as SIM swapping or SIM hijacking to steal bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies, and social media accounts," according to Motherboard.

SIM swapping is basically the process of tricking a cellphone provider like AT&T or Sprint into switching the victim's phone number to a SIM card controlled by the hacker. Once they get the phone number, the hacker can reset passwords and break into online accounts and social media and later sell them for Bitcoin. This kind of attack has become widespread, a recent Motherboard investigation showed.

In 2016, Ortiz was named the valedictorian of a small pilot high school in Boston known as "Another Course to College."

And when he graduated, Boston Public Schools noted Ortiz was on the high school's robotics team and an all around high achieving student.

"He was instrumental in the success of ACC's robotics team as the lead robot software programmer. He has taught the basics of software coding to students and has led efforts to teach computer science. Joel is fluent in Spanish and speaks conversational Chinese," BPS said.

Motherboard reported Ortiz was prone to spending sprees with all the money he got from the scam. Police told Motherboard when they nabbed him, Ortiz had a Gucci bag on him as part of a recent spending spree they believe was financed by the alleged crimes.

Read the full story in Motherboard: 'Tell Your Dad To Give Us Bitcoin'

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Photo Credit:

May 31, 2016- Mayor Martin Walsh joins the Boston Public School Committee and Superintendent Chang in honoring 37 BPS high school Valedictorians. (Mayor's Office Photo by Isabel Leon)