14 DAY TRIAL // Two Romanian nationals – Bogdan Boceanu, 30, and Andrei Bolovan, 29 – have been sentenced to 80, respectively 27 months in prison for their role in a massive phishing scheme that targeted the customers of eBay and several financial companies.
The two fraudsters, along with 17 other Romanian citizens, were accused by US authorities of launching phishing scams that targeted the customers of eBay, PayPal, Wells Fargo, US Bank, LaSalle Bank, People’s Bank, Comerica Bank, Regions Bank, Bank of America, Citibank and others.
The crooks sent out spam emails in an effort to trick the customers of these organizations into visiting bogus websites on which they were instructed to enter personal and financial information, including PINs, credit card numbers, expiration dates, CVV codes, and social security numbers.
US authorities began their investigation into the group in the summer of 2005 after a resident of Madison, Connecticut, contacted the FBI office in New Haven about a suspicious email purporting to come from People’s Bank.
Investigators found that the email pointed to a bogus People’s Bank website that collected sensitive information and sent it by email to the individuals in Romania. In some cases, the stolen data was sent to a “collector” email account from which the crooks retrieved the information.
The stolen information was later used to access bank accounts, lines of credit, and to withdraw money from ATMs in Romania.
Bolovan is believed to have been involved in the phishing conspiracy from 2004 through 2007, when charges were brought against 7 of the 19 suspects. The remaining 12 individuals, including Bolovan and Boceanu, were indicted in November 2010.
The two were extradited from Romania in 2010 after Romania and the US ratified an amended treaty on mutual legal assistance.
In December 2012, Bolovan pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud in connection with access device. Boceanu was found guilty of the same crime by a jury. In addition, Boceanu was also found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.