Girlfriend of Alphabay Vendor ‘Courvoisier’ Faces Fraud Charge

At Southwark Crown Court in December, Alphabay vendor ‘Courvoisier’ (Grant West) pleaded guilty to hacking and fraud charges related to the 2015 hack of Just Eat, a food delivery service. He admitted he had hacked the site and then sold the customer details on the darknet as “fullz.” Months later, the same Court heard prosecutors accused West’s girlfriend of conspiring to commit fraud in the same Just Eat case.

Grant West, age 25, pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing criminal property, two counts of conspiracy to defraud, four counts of possession and supply of marijuana, one count of money laundering, and one computer hacking charge. He admitted he had hacked Just Eat. He said that he had accessed 165,000 customer records that included payment information. He then sold the records on Alphabay.

Prosecutors now accuse West’s girlfriend, 26-year-old Rachael Brookes, of conspiring to hack the Just Eat website, carrying out a phishing campaign against Just Eat customers, and selling the stolen records in the darknet. The prosecutors told the court that Brookes and West carried out a “sophisticated” plan to obtain additional information from Just Eat customers.

According to the prosecutors, Brookes and West sent surveys to Just Eat customers that requested confidential information in exchange for 10 pounds. The duo never sent money to the Just Eat customers, the prosecutors pointed out. This would obviously not have made a difference. Brookes pleaded guilty to one count of acting with intent to secure unauthorised access to data stored on a computer. She denied the conspiracy to defraud Just Eat and the company’s customers, though.

Kevin Barry, the lead prosecutor, told the court that the couple conspired together “to carry out fraudulent actions. This was a sophisticated and organised agreement and plan.” He reminded the court that the defendant acted in unison with West and was not a criminal on her own. “It is not suggested that this defendant was the mastermind, but that was Grant West.” Barry said that West had “pleaded guilty and could rightly be called an expert.”

West, while on bail for the Just Eat scam in August 2016, hacked Uber, T-Mobile, Groupon, and nearly a dozen more sites. He sold more customer data on Alphabay as Courvoisier. He eventually sold marijuana on the darknet as well. Authorities caught him later that year with marijuana and £25,000.