Gone Phishing

Good news in the fight against Internet scams and cons. One of the most prevalent in my own emailbox lately is the onslaught of "phishers." (To see an earlier explanation of one of the scams, take a look at this earlier post: Fun with Credit Card Harvesting.). To me, this has always seemed to be the easiest Internet crime to track and prosecute--the fingerprints left behind (names for domain name purchase, email collections, etc) and the credit card use should leave a pretty decent trail to the criminal.

Well, check out this:

A Chicago man pleaded guilty Friday to wire fraud in connection with a scheme that used a phony Web site to steal credit card and account information from customers of Microsoft Corp.'s Microsoft Network (MSN) Internet service provider business.

The plea agreement is the latest salvo in the government's stepped up efforts against identity theft and so-called "phisher" Web sites, which mimic legitimate Web sites and trick unsuspecting Internet users into divulging sensitive personal and financial information.

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Guevara will be sentenced on Dec. 5 by a federal judge in U.S. District Court for Western District of Washington in Seattle and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of up to US $250,000, the DOJ said.