Teen pleads guilty to hacking thousands of DraftKings accounts

DraftKings hack overview: 

• Who: Joseph Garrison, a 19-year-old Wisconsin man, has pleaded guilty to his role in a November 2022 credential stuffing attack against DraftKings Sportsbook. 
• Why: Garrison pled guilty to stealing around $600,000 dollars after gaining unauthorized access to around 1,600 DraftKings accounts. 
• Where: The case was heard in New York federal court. 

A 19-year-old Wisconsin man has pleaded guilty to participating in a credential stuffing attack in November 2022 targeting DraftKings Sportsbook betting accounts that cost victims hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Joseph Garrison, according to federal prosecutors in Manhattan, admitted to his role in hacking into thousands of DraftKings Sportsbook betting accounts before selling access to the accounts to others. 

Garrison was charged with selling the login information with instructions on how to drain the funds of the compromised DraftKings accounts to individuals who used the info to steal about $600,000 in total. 

A total of six charges were filed against Garrison in May, including for aggravated theft and wire fraud, among other things, reports Law360. 

DraftKings hacker found after law enforcement tracked IP address to his home, prosecutors say

Garrison got caught after an undercover law enforcement officer bought a pair of compromised DraftKings accounts that were being offered for sale online and traced the IP address of the seller back to the teen. 

During a subsequent search of Garrison’s home, officers found credential stuffing programs and files that connected the teen to the credential stuffing attack against DraftKings and instructional photos on how to use the stolen credentials to steal funds. 

Investigators also said they discovered messages from Garrison to his co-conspirators in which the teen said “fraud is fun,” among other things. 

Garrison, in an interview with investigators in June 2022, admitted to running a website called “Goat Shop” that sold hacked accounts, with the teen claiming to have made $800,000 in total from the site, according to court documents. 

Notably, a law enforcement officer located an undated photo on Garrison’s phone that showed Goat Shop had made a total sales revenue of more than $2 million by selling more than 225,000 products. 

Garrison is set to be sentenced for his role in the DraftKings Sportsbook hacking scheme on Jan. 16, reports Law360. 

A class action lawsuit was filed against DraftKings and three of its executives in March by a consumer arguing the company harmed investors by allegedly selling non-fungible tokens on its DraftKings marketplace that were considered unregistered securities.

Has your DraftKings Sportsbook account been accessed by an unauthorized party? Let us know in the comments! 

The DraftKings hack case is United States of America v. Garrison, Case No. 1:23-mj-03947, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

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