Feds Nab Teen Who Scammed AOL
Reuters
01:49 PM Jul. 21, 2003 PT
WASHINGTON -- U.S. regulators said on Monday they had charged a 17-year-old boy with using "spam" e-mails and a fake AOL Web page to trick people out of their credit-card information and steal thousands of dollars.
Officials at the Federal Trade Commission said they had agreed to settle their case against the teenager, who was not identified because of his age, after he agreed to pay back $3,500 he had stolen, and to submit to a lifetime ban on sending spam.
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"We're only beginning to discover the extent of these e-mails. They're only beginning to proliferate right now," FTC commissioner Mozelle Thompson told a news conference.
In the case cited on Monday, the teenager's e-mails told recipients they needed to update their AOL billing information and instructed them to click on a hyperlink connected to the "AOL Billing Center."
The link diverted people to a phony AOL website that contained the company's logo and links to real AOL Web pages, the FTC alleged. There, they were instructed to enter their credit-card numbers, along with their mothers' maiden names, billing addresses, social security numbers, bank routing numbers, credit limits, personal identification numbers and AOL screen names and passwords.
A spokesman for AOL, a unit of media conglomerate AOL Time Warner, said the company welcomed the FTC's action.
Spokesman Nicholas Graham said almost anyone can mimic any company's logo and graphics, and he advised Internet users to "beware and be vigilant."
"We've always told our members that AOL will never ask them for their password or billing information. It's the golden rule of AOL," Graham said.
The teenager used his newfound information to go on an online shopping spree, the government charged, and to log on to AOL in his victims' names and send more spam. He also recruited other people to take delivery of fraudulently obtained merchandise he had ordered.
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,59707,00.html
Reuters
01:49 PM Jul. 21, 2003 PT
WASHINGTON -- U.S. regulators said on Monday they had charged a 17-year-old boy with using "spam" e-mails and a fake AOL Web page to trick people out of their credit-card information and steal thousands of dollars.
Officials at the Federal Trade Commission said they had agreed to settle their case against the teenager, who was not identified because of his age, after he agreed to pay back $3,500 he had stolen, and to submit to a lifetime ban on sending spam.
Special Advertising Section
Find out how Novell Nterprise Linux Services will put a smile on your face ... read more.
"We're only beginning to discover the extent of these e-mails. They're only beginning to proliferate right now," FTC commissioner Mozelle Thompson told a news conference.
In the case cited on Monday, the teenager's e-mails told recipients they needed to update their AOL billing information and instructed them to click on a hyperlink connected to the "AOL Billing Center."
The link diverted people to a phony AOL website that contained the company's logo and links to real AOL Web pages, the FTC alleged. There, they were instructed to enter their credit-card numbers, along with their mothers' maiden names, billing addresses, social security numbers, bank routing numbers, credit limits, personal identification numbers and AOL screen names and passwords.
A spokesman for AOL, a unit of media conglomerate AOL Time Warner, said the company welcomed the FTC's action.
Spokesman Nicholas Graham said almost anyone can mimic any company's logo and graphics, and he advised Internet users to "beware and be vigilant."
"We've always told our members that AOL will never ask them for their password or billing information. It's the golden rule of AOL," Graham said.
The teenager used his newfound information to go on an online shopping spree, the government charged, and to log on to AOL in his victims' names and send more spam. He also recruited other people to take delivery of fraudulently obtained merchandise he had ordered.
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,59707,00.html
