⏱ 2 min read
Nathan Austad, aka ‘Snoopy’, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for his role in a scheme to hack user accounts on a fantasy sports and betting website in the Southern District of New York. On November 18, 2022, Austad and his co-conspirators launched a ‘credential stuffing attack’ on the website, compromising over 60,000 user accounts and resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses. The defendants purchased stolen credentials on the dark web and used previous passwords from other websites to gain unauthorized access.
The scheme involved systematically attempting to log into the betting website using stolen username and password pairs obtained from large-scale data breaches of other companies. Austad and his co-conspirators made a series of attempts to log into the website, eventually gaining access to thousands of accounts.
Austad pled guilty to one count of conspiring to commit computer intrusion on December 12, 2025, before U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams, who imposed the sentence. The case was investigated by the FBI, with the assistance of other federal partners.
The sentence demonstrates the commitment of the DOJ, the FBI, and other federal partners to protecting online markets and holding cybercriminals accountable. U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton stated that Austad and his co-defendants were wrong to believe they could evade law enforcement, and that the prison sentence serves as a warning to others who would engage in similar cybercrimes.
📋 Key Facts
- Crime: Cybercrime
- Defendant: New York
- Location: NY
- Source: DOJ Press Release
