Phisher admits to stealing £400,000

Posted on 13 Oct 2008 at 14:09

A 22-year-old Romanian faces 10 years in jail after admitting that he was behind a phishing scam that stole £400,000 from over 7,000 people.

Sergiu Daniel Popa, who was extradited to the USA from Spain in June this year, pleaded guiltily to spamming out phishing emails purporting to come from financial institutions including PayPal and Citibank.

The court was told that these email were designed to lead victims to bogus websites and then trick them into revealing their PIN codes, names, addresses, bank account and credit card numbers.

According to reports, Popa was also offering phishing kits for sale with instructions on how to counterfeit credit cards. In an email sent to an associate in January 2005 Popa said: "Listen up, I am a accredited [sic] vendor in underworld. I have many scams, shop admins, and many full info credit cards. I can also pull up credit reports and cash out ATMs. I charge for my services but I am a great provider of everything."

Popa now faces up to ten years in jail and a £290,000 fine.

"The authorities have done a great job in pursuing this case and forcing Popa to face his day in court," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

"Sadly though, there are still plenty of other criminals taking advantage of innocent internet users and stealing identities from the unwary."

Author: Robert Jaques

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