A BRADFORD teenager is one of two boys accused of stealing almost $1 million worth of Bitcoin from an American man’s digital wallet.

The youth from Bradford, and a second teenager from Southampton, are accused of stealing the cryptocurrency from a man in the US state of Colorado.

The incident is alleged to have happened in 2018 when they were both aged under 18. 

It is claimed the boys created and deployed ‘clipboard hijacking’ malware and then used it to steal 16.4552 Bitcoins from a computer belonging to Andrew Schober.

The total value of 16.4 Bitcoins, as of Sunday, August 29, is £579,261 but the value of bitcoin varies enormously. 

Mr Schober’s computer is alleged to have became infected with the malware after a link to software, called ‘Electrum Atom’, was posted on the popular public online forum Reddit. The malware was hidden within the ‘Electrum Atom’ software.

The court papers, filed in Denver, Colorado, US, claim: “The Malware was designed by defendants to clandestinely install itself on the hard drive of the victim’s computer and to monitor the victim’s computer activity by secretly requesting that the computer run a pattern-matching algorithm each time the victim used the copy-paste (or “clipboard”) function on his computer.”

The malware was downloaded and installed on Mr Schober’s computer in or about January 2018, according to the court papers. 

Bitcoin, often described as a virtual currency or a digital currency, is a type of money that is completely virtual.

It is like an online version of cash. You can use it to buy products and services, but not many shops accept bitcoin yet and some countries have banned it altogether.

It is also claimed that the parents of both boys have yet to respond to Mr Schober’s request to return his cryptocurrency. 

The Bradford youth is described in the court papers as having studied computer science at Greenhead College in Huddersfield, while the other teen is ‘currently studying computer science at the University of Warwick’. 

The lawsuit states: “Both (the defendants) are skilled software developers and computer science students. 

“Both were minors when they engaged in the actions and omissions described herein.” 

It adds also during January 2018, a total of 16.4552 Bitcoins were allegedly stolen from Mr Schober’s bitcoin wallet on his computer to the malware address.

The lawsuit adds that Mr Schober spent $10,000 to track down who he claims has stolen his bitcoin. The cryptocurrency accounted for 95 per cent of his net wealth at the time of the alleged theft, according to the court papers, which were filed in May this year.

He sent a letter to both the boy’s parents, asking for it to be returned to him. 
The court papers state: “In or about October 2018, Mr Schober emailed a letter to the defendants demanding that they return the cryptocurrency stolen from Mr Schober.

“As of the date of this Complaint, the defendants have not responded to Mr Schober’s request that they return his cryptocurrency.” 

The youth’s family were unavailable for comment when contacted by the Telegraph & Argus.