Phishing Scheme Gets 70 Months

[LeighAnn]

An Azusa man who was the first person convicted by a jury under the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 for operating a sophisticated "phishing scheme" has been sentenced to 70 months in federal prison for committing identity theft, credit card fraud, witness harassment and other offenses.

Jeffrey Brett Goodin, 47, was sentenced Monday afternoon by United States District Judge Christina A. Snyder in Los Angeles. In addition to the prison term of nearly six years, Judge Snyder ordered Goodin to pay $1,002,885.58 to the victims of his phishing scheme, including nearly $1 million to Earthlink.

Goodin was found guilty on January 12 after a week-long jury trial. The jury found that Goodin sent thousands of e-mails through an Earthlink Internet connection to America Online users that appeared to be from AOL's billing department. The e-mails prompted the AOL customers to "update" their personal and credit card information on phony AOL webpages that Goodin controlled. Goodin then used his victims' personal and credit card information to make unauthorized credit card purchases.

It cost Earthlink nearly $1 million to detect and combat Goodin's phishing schemes. After being indicted on federal charges in the phishing scheme, Goodin harassed an individual who had cooperated with authorities by posting intimidating messages to a website commemorating the death of the cooperator's sister.

End excerpt. A little more here

http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/7174

[On the Road]

1. 70 Mnths? Not That Long a Sentence

the part that hurts is the seven figure fine. Immediate bankruptcy.

[Gregorian]

2. Good. Now on to the Paypal phishing scammers.

I've been getting the Paypal phishing emails for weeks now. I forward them to Paypal where they are confirmed. I only determined they were fraudulent by having a very quick eye, and then by doing a well timed screen capture.

Same exact scheme.

[rocktivity]

3. I used to get PayPal phishes, too--and I didn't even have an account at the time!

But they're very easy to spot--if the e-mail contains a link to a login page, it's a phony.

:headbang:
rocknation

[Jed Dilligan]

4. And people get life for smuggling weed

:wtf: