Featured Image Credit: YouTube/Zac Alsop
Topics: YouTube, Technology
Callum Jones
While using the internet and social media can be safe when done carefully, the prospect of hackers never seems to be too far away.
The dark web is something that is often talked about, with a hacker boasting 30 years experience recently revealing the scariest things he has seen on the dark web.
The thought of being the victim of a hacker, or even having your identity stolen, is a terrifying and daunting prospect to the majority of folks.
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However, one man decided to willingly let it happen to himself to highlight how easily being hacked can occur.
Last year, YouTuber Zac Alsop embarked on one of the more damaging challenges on the video platform after he fell victim to an eye-watering scam.
Zac ended up seeing a whopping $53,853 stolen from his business bank account - something, we can argue, that is completely life-ruining.
The YouTuber documented the terrifying scam on his page, admitting his experience was 'pretty awful'.
Despite the horrifying ordeal, Zac did manage to get the money returned to his account, much to his relief.
The hacking ordeal got the YouTuber thinking though: What would happen if a hacker was given more time?
The fact the hacker could steal such a large sum of money in five minutes is terrifying enough, what they could do with even more time is hard to fathom to be honest.
So, to highlight the dangers of hackers to his followers, Zac gave two professional fraudsters 28 days to ruin his life.
After signing a waiver for professional hackers Tony Sales and Solomon Gilbert to do what a criminal would do without prosecution, Zac was subjected to a series of terrifying hacking stunts spanning the course of six months.
It began by Sales and Gilbert posted a few messages and uploading a few posts to Zac's social media accounts, but that was just the beginning.
Just a few days after, Solomon was able to access Zac's National Insurance number and information on his driving license.
With just this, the professional hackers could redirect Zac's mail via the UK's mail provider, subsequently getting new forms of identification sent to a different address.
The YouTube video then cuts to Sales searching through Zac’s rubbish bins at his office, finding out his home address, email addresses, phone numbers and bank account information.
This allowed the skill duo to replicate Zac’s digital identity to up to a whopping 60 percent.
The hacking didn't stop there though, as Sales and Gilbert were also able to created a deepfake of Zac's face, which allowed them to open a new bank account, a cryptocurrency account, and take also out a loan.
Truly terrifying.