I am often asked if any virus writers or spammers are ever caught. In fact there have been many arrests. Most of the time it is difficult to find what happened to these idiots because so much time lapses and they are not considered headline news, although I wish a few would be.
Yesterday in Houston Zachary Keith Hill plead guilty to running a phishing operation. Phishing is a version of spamming where emails are sent out looking like they are from a credit card or other type of financial institution. The recipient is tricked into giving account information to the spammer. This has been very popular lately and I'm sure several people have fallen into the trap. In his possession were 471 stolen credit card numbers, 152 bank accounts, and 541 user names and passwords for secure web sites.
This is actually the second arrest for this guy. He could get 10 to 15 years and large fines. It will be interesting to see what he ends up getting. Hopefully the judge or some of the jury members is or knows someone that is a victim of a phishing scam.
Click here for the whole story. (No account information required!)
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