A Scattered Spider member gets 10 years in prison
August 21, 2025
A 20-year-old Scattered Spider member gets 10 years in prison and $13M restitution for SIM-swapping crypto thefts.
Scattered Spider hacker, Noah Michael Urban (20), was sentenced to 10 years in U.S. prison and ordered to pay $13M restitution for SIM-swapping crypto thefts.
“A 20-year-old Palm Coast man linked to a massive cybercriminal gang was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday morning after pleading guilty to federal charges, including conspiracy and wire fraud.” reported news outlet News4JAX.
“Despite federal prosecutors requesting eight years and the defense requesting five years for Noah Urban, a federal judge decided to sentence Urban to 120 months in federal prison, with three years of supervised release. He also has to pay $13 million in restitution to victims.”
Urban (aka Sosa, King Bob, Gustavo Fring, Elijah, and Anthony Ramirez) told the popular journalist Brian Krebs that the sentence is unfair, saying the judge ignored his young age as a mitigating factor.
“The judge purposefully ignored my age as a factor because of the fact another Scattered Spider member hacked him personally during the course of my case,” Urban said in reply to questions, noting that he was sending the messages from a Florida county jail. “He should have been removed as a judge much earlier on. But staying in county jail is torture.” said Urban via his King Bob accounts on Twitter/X.
In April, 2025, Urban pleaded guilty to conspiracy, wire fraud, and identity theft in two federal cases, one in Florida and another in California.
The charges relate to his alleged role in the Scattered Spider cybercrime group (also known as UNC3944, 0ktapus). Urban admitted to exporting stolen data and helping run sophisticated phishing and fraud operations across multiple states.
The cybercrime group Scattered Spider is suspected of hacking into hundreds of organizations over the past two years, including Twilio, LastPass, DoorDash, and Mailchimp.
Scattered Spider members are part of a broader cybercriminal community called “The Com,” where hackers brag about high-profile cyber thefts, typically initiated through social engineering tactics like phone, email, or SMS scams to gain access to corporate networks.
In January 2024, U.S. authorities arrested Noah Michael Urban, known online as “Sosa” and “King Bob,” suspected of being a member of the Scattered Spider cybercriminal group. He was accused of stealing at least $800,000 from five victims between August 2022 and March 2023. Urban, known online as “Sosa” and “King Bob,” is linked to the same group that hacked Twilio and other companies in 2022.
Prosecutors revealed that Urban and co-conspirators stole victims’ personal info and used SIM swapping to reset crypto account passwords and drain funds.
Urban initially pleaded not guilty, but later entered a plea deal in both California and Florida cases. He admitted guilt to conspiracy, wire fraud, and ID theft.
Urban’s hacking shook the music industry by leaking unreleased tracks from artists like Playboi Carti, Ariana Grande, and Lil Uzi Vert. The leaks disrupted album plans and caused major financial and emotional damage. Ariana Grande expressed her frustration publicly, highlighting the personal toll of the breach. The case illustrates the real-world impact of cybercrime on artists.
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Pierluigi Paganini
(SecurityAffairs – hacking, cybercrime)
