A man accused of posing as an Uber driver has been charged with several felonies, including theft, fraud schemes, and money laundering, after allegedly stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cryptocurrency from unsuspecting passengers in Scottsdale, Arizona.

According to a report by FOX 10 Phoenix, Nuruhussein Hussein orchestrated the scheme by impersonating an Uber driver outside The W Scottsdale hotel, near Camelback and Scottsdale roads. Authorities say Hussein targeted two victims—one in March and another in October—using a sophisticated method to gain access to their phones and siphon cryptocurrency from their Coinbase accounts.

Court documents allege that Hussein approached victims waiting for their rides, calling out their names to appear as their legitimate Uber drivers. 

Once inside the car, Hussein reportedly used two tactics to gain access to their phones: claiming his phone was dead or malfunctioning, or offering to troubleshoot the Uber app for them when it falsely indicated their driver had not arrived.

Once he had control of the victims' phones, Hussein was accused of transferring a combined total of $223,000 in cryptocurrency either by direct phone-to-phone transfer or by transferring funds to cold storage.‍

Threats and Sophistication

The March victim told police that Hussein became threatening when asked to return the phone. Court documents state, "He made threats to one of the victims that they needed to chill or something bad would happen, and the victim believed that he had a gun, although no weapon was seen."

Due to the level of sophistication in the alleged fraud and the threats made to victims, prosecutors pushed for a $200,000 cash-only bond. "If Mr. Hussein is able to post bond, we'd ask for electronic monitoring, and I'd also ask for no use of the internet. Given that this was an extremely sophisticated electronic fraud, we do not want Mr. Hussein to potentially destroy further evidence if it exists," a prosecutor said.

The state also raised concerns that Hussein might be a flight risk, citing his frequent travel to Ethiopia. A judge ordered Hussein to remain in Maricopa County and placed him under a $200,000 secured bond with electronic monitoring if he is released.