By John Leyden for The
Register.
This story has been reproduced with permission.
Jeffrey Brett Goodin, 45, of Azusa, California, was found guilty
last week of sending thousands of bogus emails to AOL customers in
the first conviction by a jury under the CAN SPAM Act 2003, the
US's anti-spam laws. Goodin used a number of compromised Earthlink
accounts to distribute messages supposedly originating from AOL's
billing department. Prospective marks were referred to a number of
bogus websites maintained by Goodin where they were invited to
submit their personal details, including credit card numbers, under
threat that failure to do so would result in the suspension of
their internet access services.
These details allowed Goodin, or people he sold the details to,
to make fraudulent purchases online. It's unclear how much Goodin
made as a result of this phishing scam, described by prosecutors as
"sophisticated".
In addition to the CAN-SPAM Act conviction, Goodin was convicted
of 10 other counts, including wire fraud, aiding and abetting the
unauthorized use of credit cards, misuse of the AOL trademark,
attempted witness harassment and failure to appear in court.
Goodin is scheduled to appear for sentencing before US District
Court Judge Christina A. Snyder on June 11 where he faces a maximum
sentence of up to 101 years imprisonment.
© The Register
2007
