loose wire describes the background of an American phisher who masterminded the UK part of a multi-million pound ID theft scam and has been jailed for six years. Douglas Havard, 24, was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court after pleading guilty to conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to launder money (the legal definition of "phishing").

The astonishing thing is that despite his young age he has a track record in the USA in fraud involving counterfeit bar codes and credit cards and he was only 1 of 15 global middlemen involved in the phishing scam.

Havard and a partner operated the UK end of an international operation that tricked consumers into handing over their banking passwords to bogus websites.

They used credit cards obtained under false names, money raided from compromised bank accounts and the illicit purchase and sale of goods online to finance a lavish lifestyle.

via Rick Klau