PHOENIX–A phishing scam that targeted members of a credit union in Alabama has led to the sentencing of a man here.
Iosif Florea, 42, was sentenced to 32 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $17,786.50 in restitution after pleading guilty to charges of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.
According to prosecutors, Florea was involved in a phishing scheme in March and June of 2015 that sent text messages to nearly 500,000 people in Alabama. The messages contained a link to a website that claimed to be that of the Alabama State Employees Credit Union (ASECU) and requested the recipients use the link to verify account information, RocketCityNow.com reported.
As is the case in phishing scams, the link actually took recipients who clicked on it to a fraudulent website where they were prompted to enter personal account information, such as their names, debit card numbers, the card’s expiration date, the security code from the back of the card, and their PINs). The crooks were able to use captured information by loading it onto blank cards.
According to prosecutors, there is video evidence of Florea in Phoenix, Arizona, Los Angeles, California, and Las Vegas withdrawing money at ATMs using cards with stolen information from approximately 30 different accounts.