38 People Indicted For Web Scam
Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: phishing, scam, Romania | Themes: Business
Police in the United States and Romania yesterday indicted 38 members of a global crime ring for stealing the names, social security numbers, credit card information and personal details of internet users in a phishing scam.
Deputy Attorney General, Mark R. Filip, made the announcement with the Romanian Prosecutor General, Laura Codruþa Kövesi, to highlight the extensive and continued cooperation between the two countries in addressing these types of international crimes.
A federal grand jury in Los Angeles charged 33 of the individuals in a 65-count indictment unsealed today for their alleged participation in an international phishing scam that used the Internet to defraud thousands of individual victims and hundreds of financial institutions.
Customers from Citibank, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, Comerica Bank, Wells Fargo, eBay and PayPal were among the targeted victims.
Seven individuals were also charged in a District of Connecticut indictment for their roles in an Internet phishing scheme, however this number includes two people who were charged in the Los Angeles case.
In one attack, the scammers sent out over 1.3 million fake emails. Once they had garnered the victims’ information, they sent the details back to the US where they were transferred onto counterfeit cards. These cards were then used to draw out money from ATMs.
If convicted, each of the individuals in Connecticut faces a maximum term of five years in prison on each conspiracy charge, and a mandatory term of two years in prison on the aggravated identify theft charge. As if that weren’t enough, each of them is subject to a fine of up to $250,000 on each count, or twice the gain resulting from the offense, whichever is greater.
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As if that weren't enough???
Please tell me you are not sympathetic here (assuming they are guilty). I'd need more details on the case, but it is very likely that each of the 5 year maximum conspiracy charges will be carried out in parallel. A maximum of 7 years in prison seems light to me.
Consider: with this information, these people routinely destroy people's credit, bankrupt them, and hang them out to dry. Under the old laws, if you declared bankruptcy, you couldn't get a credit card for 10 years. On top of that, many of the people who fall for these scams don't make much more than their cost of living. I'd wager it would take many people more than 7 years to get back to where they were before the scam. Also, given that these people are members of a "Global Crime Ring", there is a good chance that the maximum term charges will quickly turn into their respective minimums (Depending on how valuable the members are).
>= $250,000 per offense may be a little steep, but I certainly don't think that the proposed sentences is too much without fines. If the penalties go through as laid out, it'll certainly send a message to other scammers.
Likely, the fines are purposely inflated so that Lawyers will get their 60%, the government will get its cut, and there will be enough left that the victims actually get something meaningful back. They could also be inflated with the anticipation of the penalties getting argued down.
If it were up to me, I'd drop the prisons terms for the conspiracy charges, keep the prison term for the identity theft charges, and keep the fines. This would keep them out of the loop long enough that their methods get somewhat outdated, but then get them back into the work force to pay their fines. After all, they can't pay the fines if they are in prison. They should, however, be monitored to make sure that they don't go back to scamming to pay the fines (or to catch their associates if they do).