News
College student arrested for phishing
Posted on March 10, 2006

Ali Shekafroush of Corona, 20, a student at Riverside Community College, Calif., has been arrested for allegedly trying to steal the personal information of about 30,000 people through phishing spam.

According to a news release by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department the arrest was a result of a 14 month investigation into Internet stalking, computer intrusion, auction fraud, and identity theft, by its high-tech crime taskforce.

Some 30,000 victims have been identified in this investigation, and several hundred did suffer financial losses, as their computers and credit accounts were accessed without their knowledge or authorization. The suspect(s) by the use of "phish" pages, gained access to their credit profiles and applied for credit and other goods and services in their name.

Phish pages resemble actual company WebPages, but in reality they entice potential victims to "update" their account information. Once this has been done, the suspects harvest that information and use it to make unauthorized purchases, or sign-up for new accounts in the victim's name.

Shekafroush was transported to the Robert Presley Detention Center where he is being held on $100,000.00 bail.

The Riverside County Sheriff's C.A.T.C.H Team (Computer And Technology Crime High-Tech Response Team) is one of 5 task forces in California charged with investigating High-Tech Crime, and is in partnership with San Diego and Imperial Counties.
SOURCE: Riverside County Sheriff's Department