Calif. Man Faces 101 Years for Phishing

A California phisher faces up to 101 years in prison after being convicted in U.S. District Court of tricking AOL members into disclosing their personal information, including credit cards. The information was then used to make purchases, say prosecutors.

Federal authorities arrested Jeffrey Goodin, 45, in January 2006. He had been using hacked EarthLink accounts to send e-mails to AOL members. The messages were fashioned to look as if the user would lose service if they failed to respond.

From there, the victim would be directed to a spoofed AOL billing page where they would enter their personal information. The number of victims was not disclosed.

The conviction is the first by jury under the CAN-SPAM Act, passed in 2003. Sentencing has been scheduled for June 11.

Goodin was also convicted of 10 other counts, including wire fraud, aiding and abetting the unauthorized use of an access device (credit card), possession of more than 15 unauthorized access devices, misuse of the AOL trademark, attempted witness harassment and failure to appear in court.

Phishing is quickly becoming one of the Internet's biggest problems. 25,816 unique reports of phishing were received in the month of November alone, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, and the problem shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.