Phishing scammer gets five year sentence

A Romanian man will serve five years in federal prison for his involvement in a phishing scheme which targeted customers of several banks, eBay and PayPal.

On Tuesday, a U.S. District Judge in New Haven, Conn., sentenced 28-year-old Laurentiu Cristian Busca, who was “heavily involved” in the conspiracy between 2004 to 2006.

He possessed more than 10,000 stolen debit and credit card numbers by sending out spurious emails that led customers to bogus websites where their card data was stolen, a release from the Federal Bureau of Investigation said.

Busca also created counterfeit software to scam users in addition to trafficking the stolen data.

Throughout the FBI's seven-year investigation, 19 others have been charged in connection with the phishing ring.