Steve Jobs’ Amazon account hacked, e-mail claims

by Steve Ragan - May 14 2009, 17:30

Leander Kahney published a story today on The Cult of Mac site that details a completely random e-mail sent by a person who claims to have hacked Steve Jobs' Amazon account. The e-mail, sent to Kahney because of his book on Apple’s front man, claims the account was hacked because Jobs fell victim to a Phishing scam.

This has got to be fake, it’s hard to believe Steve Jobs would fall victim to a Phishing attack aimed at Amazon accounts. Kahney said the e-mail came from a person who goes by the name of 'orin0co'.

“The hacker claimed that neither Jobs nor Amazon knew about his break in because it hadn’t been detected. He sent a screenshot of what appears to be Jobs’ account at Amazon.com. The screenshot shows three purchases, although details have been blanked out: A Blu-Ray DVD, a HBO miniseries on DVD, and a copy of The Nuclear Express, a history of the nuclear bomb,” Kahney wrote.

According to the story, 'orin0co' wants to sell the account information to the highest bidder. And, according to 'orin0co', Jobs has been a busy Amazon user, with some 20,000 items purchased from the online retailer in the last 10 years.

Yet, screenshots or e-mails cannot count as solid proof. If Steve Jobs can fall victim to Phishing schemes, then we are all doomed. I tend to agree with Kahney and his observation.

“The biggest problem is there’s no proof. Apple isn’t talking. It seems unlikely that Jobs would fall for such an elementary scam, and screenshots are easily faked. Nor does it seem likely that Jobs is such an out-of-control online shopper; 20,000 items beggars belief,” he noted. 

“In addition, the screenshot, which purportedly shows Jobs’ most recently purchased items, includes only three purchases over the busy holiday period, and the last visible purchase is dated October 2008.”

Kahney’s story, as well as the e-mail exchange, can be viewed here.

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