A man in the US has been jailed for seven years for
buyingstolen identitiesfrom web forums run
by cyber-criminals and using the information forbank fraud.
Reports say 21-year-old Jacob Vincent Green-Bressler was not
involved in actually stealing and selling identities, but used the
information he bought from hackers to defraud thousands of US bank
customers.
Green-Bressler was convicted of soliciting information,
including credit and debit card account numbers, personal
identification numbers, expiration dates, passwords and Social
Security numbers.
Using this data, he was able to create counterfeit credit cards,
which were then used to fraudulently withdraw money from cash
machines in Arizona.
About half of this stolen money would then be transferred back
overseas to the cyber-criminals who supplied the original
information.
At the height of the scam, it is estimated that Green-Bressler
held more than 4,500 illegal credit and debit card account numbers
and PINs, and that more than £150,000 was wired overseas.
"While good headway has been made in clamping down on the
hackers that sell stolen identities online, more action needs to be
taken to stop the criminals that buy and use this information,"
said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at internet
security software firm
Sophos.