Romanian gets prison term for phishing scam
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
A district court in Bridgeport Connecticut has sentenced a Romanian man to between 46 and 57 months' imprisonment for his part in a number of global phishing scams.
In addition, Ovidiu-Ionut Nicola-Roman also faces possible fines and restitutions charges after pleading guilty to identity theft and fraud charges.
He is one of 38 people arrested as part of a crackdown on the number of phishing scams in operation, Business Week reported.
It is thought that Nicola-Roman is personally responsible for thefts totaling $400,000 misappropriated from numerous organizations and consumers through fraudulent spam emails.
The publication explained that once they have bypassed email filters, such messages also often attempt to compromise machines by installing computer viruses and other forms of malware once they have been opened.
In other developments, thewhir.com has alerted businesses to a new phishing scam which appears to originate from major credit card lenders and attempts to glean information from users with promises of cash prizes and a luxury trip to Las Vegas.
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