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The founder of the Christian crowdfunding platform GiveSendGo called on the FBI to investigate the hackers who’ve made the names of the donors who contributed to the Canadian Freedom Convoy public as part of what he perceives to be a "well-orchestrated," politically motivated doxing effort.
GiveSendGo founder Jacob Wells told Fox News Digital that some of the actors who seem to have been taking responsibility for hacking into the Freedom Convoy’s fundraising campaign "have histories in some pretty nefarious attacks." Wells has called on the FBI and governmental investigative agencies in Canada to hunt down these hackers amid reports that some private citizens, whose names were leaked online, have been receiving threatening calls and emails targeting their small businesses.
"This seems well orchestrated," he said Wednesday. "There's strong political motivations behind this."
US SMALL DONORS HELP FUEL CANADIAN ‘FREEDOM CONVOY,’ GIVESENDGO CONFIRMS
The notorious Canadian hacker Aubrey Cottle, known as Kirtaner, seemed to take partial credit for the cyberattack on the Freedom Convoy 2022’s campaign in a TikTok video circulating online. Wells did not name Cottle directly when reached by phone, but he did confirm GiveSendGo is pursing legal action.
"This is illegal, and these people should be going to jail," Wells told Fox News Digital. "The FBI -- I mean, it's surprising that we haven't heard from any investigative services. We will be reaching out ourselves to just see that there's some investigation into this. This is completely unacceptable."
"We haven't heard, and we will be reaching out because they need to be taking proactive measures themselves to go after people that are engaging in this type of illicit illegal behavior," Wells continued, referring to the FBI, "Making sure that people are held accountable to it and, you know, we can do what we can do for our platform, but this is why we have regulatory agencies, investigative agencies. This is the role of government to perform these investigations when crimes happen."
Before the cyberattack against what’s been GiveSendGo’s largest campaign to date, Wells said his company had called in cybersecurity experts in the past to analyze the platform for weaknesses. In light of the recent Freedom Convoy hack, GiveSendGo is bolstering efforts and calling in a group of "ethical hackers" with the mission to "hit our platform as hard as they can, trying to find ways to expose it."
"We find it unacceptable on our side that this happened and that's why we're pouring into bringing on the best. We never want to see this happen, and it's horrific to us that it has," Wells told Fox News Digital. "But our message to people is stand strong in the face of adversity. Don't let this intimidate you by backing down, you only give them more power."
"The number one priority for us is making our platform secure for people," he continued. "The target on our back is really big because we do allow freedom and many people, they don't like that. They're going to come after us as hard as we need to be better than we've ever been before, and we're bringing in people to make that happen. We're investing heavily in it."
Wells pointed to data breaches experienced at Facebook, Experian and other major corporations in the past, as his company is working to strengthen their code against more sophisticated hackers, particularly now as the platform generates more attention during the continuing anti-mandate demonstrations in Ottawa.
"I think this is highly, highly coordinated, very, very sophisticated hacking groups that have had a very, very targeted purpose in what they were trying to do," Wells said. "I hate the position that people have found themselves in. But this is the moment for them to rally, not be intimidated and say, ‘Yes, I support freedom. Yes, I support peaceful protests 100 percent.’ It's the bedrock of democracy, and it's the side that's opposing this that's really a group of terrorists. They're instilling terror. That's their goal."
GiveSendGo is still working to verify whether the names of the individuals shared online as supposed donors to the Freedom Convoy 20220 are even accurate. Wells noted that the information could have been exaggerated or manipulated and said the majority of donors to the Freedom Convoy contributed relatively small amounts, with an except few making contributions in the tens of thousands of dollars.
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"This has been shown to be a grassroots movement of a bunch of people that love freedom," he said. "What we're seeing really is a unique movement, and it is not going to be stopped because of people whose intention is to gain power through fear."
By contrast, Wells called out larger tech companies, such as Facebook or Twitter, as well as individuals including George Soros and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, "have dumped millions and millions of dollars into organizations for their political benefit."