Teen Gamer Turned Hacker: A Cautionary Tale

0:00It's April 14th. Tampa Bay News today starts now, AI powered and ready. Cybercrime is exploding across America, named the fastest growing crime by the FBI, with many top hackers starting as teen gamers. Take Ricky Hanshumacher, a 24-year-old, nabbed by feds in July 2018, at his Florida home after running a decade-long scam. Stealing cryptocurrency through S.I.M. Swapping. He tricked phone companies into transferring victims' numbers to his control, draining their crypto accounts for millions. Ricky got his start on hack forms while gaming online, selling verified Instagram accounts for $2,500 each as a young, teen, then leveling up to bigger heists while working a low-wage city job. Victims lost everything, but Ricky didn't grasp the damage until later, living large with trucks and jet skis from cash bundles in the mail. Prosecutors hit him with four years in prison, and $7.6 million in restitution, while FBI

1:00agents urged parents to monitor kids, online worlds closely. These days, after two years served, Ricky flipped the script, speaking to teens about his normal kid pass and sports and games that led him astray. He's now with the hacking games, a non-profit training ethical hackers from gamer talent to patch vulnerabilities and fight back. Several cyber losses topped $10.5 trillion last year, mostly from young offenders, but groups like this aim to redirect that energy, keeping the next generation on the right side of the