Phishing fraud lands two men behind bars

Two men have been jailed for conspiracy to defraud and launder money in an international phishing operation that may have netted up to 6.5 million pounds over two-years, authorities said.

Douglas Harvard, 24, a U.S. citizen who lives in Leeds, England, was sentenced to six years in prison, and Lee Elwood, 25, of Glasgow was given four years behind bars. According to the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU), the two stole at least 750,000 pounds in one 10-month period as they forwarded money on to unnamed groups in Russia.
CNET

Phony phish phantoms haunt e-mail

After all the publicity about phishing, you’d think the con artists would have moved on to another scam.

But we’re not out of the woods yet.

Phishing attacks grew 28 percent in the last 12 months, costing U.S. consumers almost $1 billion, according to a new study by Gartner Inc.

Phishing is geekspeak for scam e-mails purporting to be from reputable financial institutions on online retailers.

The e-mail directs the recipient to click on a link to update their personal profile or complete a transaction. The link is designed to look like the bank or retailer’s Web site, but it’s a phony.

The information actually goes to a scammer, who sells that information or uses it to steal from a user’s credit card or bank account.

About 73 million online Americans received an average of more than 50 phishing e-mails in the 12 months that ended in May, according to the Gartner study.

Avivah Litan, research director at Gartner, said phishing attacks are causing consumers to delete more and more e-mail without looking at it. Up to 80 percent of consumers said they now don’t trust e-mail from companies or individuals they don’t know personally, she said.

About 85 percent of those consumers delete suspect e-mail without opening it, Litan said.

[Kansas City Star]

UK Phishers Caught, Packed Away

Two identity-theft racketeers, one a U.S. citizen, have been sentenced to a combined 10 years in prison for their use of stolen credit card data
eWeek