Government halts Internet identity theft scam

HOUSTON (AP) _ Federal officials have shut down an identity theft scam in which a man tricked Internet users into providing their credit card and bank account numbers. <br><br>Zachary Keith Hill, 19, of

Wednesday, March 24th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

HOUSTON (AP) _ Federal officials have shut down an identity theft scam in which a man tricked Internet users into providing their credit card and bank account numbers.

Zachary Keith Hill, 19, of Houston, pleaded guilty last month to having and using credit instruments that did not belong to him. He is set to be sentenced May 17 and faces up to 15 years in prison, federal prosecutors said.

Neither Hill, who is free on $25,000 bond, nor his attorney, Victor Blaine, immediately returned phone calls Tuesday.

The government says Hill got hundreds of people to provide information by sending e-mails that appeared to come from America Online or Paypal. The e-mails requested updated personal information and said the account would be suspended if the information wasn't provided, according to a Department of Justice criminal complaint.

Hill also was been named in a civil action by the Federal Trade Commission.

``A hyperlink in the e-mail took consumers to what appeared to be the AOL Billing Center, with AOL's logo and live links to real AOL Web pages. But the copycat Web page belonged to the defendant,'' the FTC said.

The FTC said Hill used the information to open new credit card accounts and made purchases using existing accounts.

The Justice Department said Hill had 473 credit card numbers, 152 sets of bank account numbers and bank routing numbers and 566 sets of user names and passwords for Internet service accounts.

He was accused of using the information in 2002-2003 to obtain products and services valued at more than $47,000 through Internet services based in Virginia, where the complaint was initially filed.