AOL phisher faces 101 years in jail

A California man faces up to 101 years in federal prison after a jury found him guilty of sending out email scams as well as related crimes, ZDNet UK reports.

Jeffrey Brett Goodin, who was arrested last year, was found guilty of operating a sophisticated phishing scheme. As part of the scam, he sent emails posing as AOL’s billing department to trick people into giving up their credit card information. He then used the credit card data to make purchases.

To run the scam, Goodin used several hacked EarthLink accounts to send emails to AOL customers. The messages urged recipients to update their AOL billing information or lose service and referred them to fraudulent web pages created to collect credit card information.

The Goodin conviction is the first by a jury under the Can-Spam Act of 2003. Goodin was convicted on multiple counts in addition to the Can-Spam conviction, including wire fraud, unauthorised use of credit cards, misuse of the AOL trademark and attempted witness harassment.

Goodin is scheduled to be sentenced on 11 June.