Two Phishers Stealing 1.5m Pounds from Students’ Accounts, Jailed

Two men, Amos Njoroge Mwangi and Damola Clement Olatunji are facing a ten-year sentence to jail after found guilty of executing phishing scams, which netted them over 1.5m pounds in theft from pupils studying in UK, published bcs.org dated July 9, 2012.

A trail during June 2012 in Southwark Crown Court (Southwark, London, UK) declared Mwangi as sentenced to imprisonment for 3-yrs and 3-months, while Olatunji to serve prison for 6-yrs and 6-months.

Although Police stated that little evidence was found of the alleged culprits having an inter-connection still they were discovered as being perpetrators of a likewise phishing e-mail campaign that victimized students.

Indeed, during the attack's execution, students were dispatched fraudulent e-mails that directed them to make personal loan accounts up-to-date by visiting a fake site, sourced from a given web-link, where the cyber-criminals seized the victims' login credentials for their bank accounts. Eventually, they stole amounts valuing 1,000-5,000 pounds at intervals out of those accounts.

Telling about Olatunji and Mwangi, PCeU's (Police Central e-Crime Unit's) Jason Tunn, Detective Inspector stated that they were determined imposters because they methodically attacked UK students for pilfering huge funds. Even with the investigation's complicated nature, detectives from PCeU in cooperation with various partners and Student Loan Company, in particular, managed in recognizing the perpetrators as well as punishing them to the extent of justice they deserved, he added. Softpedia.com published this dated July 9, 2012.

Meanwhile authorities, who conducted raids at the two phishing fraudsters' homes in London and Manchester, confiscated several PCs and storage devices.

Alongside, officials from the Police department mentioned forensic evidence that helped associate Olatunji with actual fraud valuing 304,000 pounds and attempted fraud valuing 162,000 pounds.

The evidence as well suggested that Olatunji likely filched 75,000 pounds (EUR94,000/USD115,000) after defrauding customers of Halifax PLC.

Moreover, Mwangi was held for owning many software programs with which he crafted phishing e-mails as well as registered phony Internet sites.

Olatunji was penalized for conniving towards conning the Student Loan Company, conniving towards conning Halifax and for laundering money, with the sentences for each count declared 3-yrs, 6-months; 2-yrs; and 1-yr respectively.

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» SPAMfighter News - 7/18/2012