Authorities: Boy stole personal information, credit card numbers over the Internet

<br>MILWAUKEE (AP) _ A 16-year-old boy stole Internet account information from 200 people and bought items worth $1,643, including a bong and computer equipment, after obtaining the victims' credit

Monday, April 1st 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

MILWAUKEE (AP) _ A 16-year-old boy stole Internet account information from 200 people and bought items worth $1,643, including a bong and computer equipment, after obtaining the victims' credit card numbers, authorities said.

The boy, who was not identified, was charged with two felony counts of misappropriation of personal identification. He was placed in a juvenile facility and ordered to avoid computers while his case is pending.

He told police he acquired an ``underground program'' capable of obtaining the e-mail addresses of people who visit America Online chat rooms, a juvenile delinquency petition said. The program would then send e-mails on an AOL letterhead telling customers their billing information had been deleted.

Recipients would then be asked to provide their credit card information and would be directed to another site that would gather vital personal information, including passwords and Social Security numbers, the petition said.

The boy, who set up his computer to run the program while he was sleeping, told police he created several sites to harvest personal information, the petition said. The information would then be forwarded to the boy's e-mail account, the petition said.

The petition does not detail how investigators became aware of the boy's scheme, but it does indicate records are being subpoenaed from AOL and Yahoo!, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports in Monday's editions.

According to the petition, the boy says his victims should thank him because he was teaching them a lesson. ``People are really dumb,'' the boy told investigators, who seized his computer at his home.