A Texas man found guilty of hacking and abusing the LASC network for sending phishing emails was sentenced to a federal prison this week.
The man, Oriyomi Sadiq Aloba, 33, from Katy, Texas, was found guilty of saving around 2 million malicious emails and hundreds of credit card names with the hacked LASC computer system. He has been sentenced to 145 months ‘ imprisonment.
Aloba and his co-conspirators attacked LASC in July 2017 by jeopardizing a court employee’s email account. He subsequently sent phishing emails to the victims ‘ colleagues on this account and linked them to a fake website that demanded client LASC email addresses and passwords.
Whilst thousands received the email, hundreds gave their login credentials to hackers who then sent about 2 million phishing emails using the affected email accounts.
The second wave of phishing email messages allegedly came from American Express, Wells Fargo and other organizations and included links to a website that demanded passwords, personal details and credit card information from recipients.
E-mail from Aloba was set up to receive information from victims on the fake American Express website.
When a search warrant was issued on Aloba’s house, a thumb drive in the toilet, a damaged iPhone in the sink of the bathroom and a laptop with a broken screen were found.
In July, Aloba was convicted of a wire fraud conspiracy count, 15 wire fraud counts, one attempted wire fraud count, one protected computer unauthorized disability count, five unauthorized access counts to protected computers for obtaining information and four counts of aggravated identity theft, the Justice Department reported.
Co-accused Robert Charles Nicholson, 28, of Brooklyn, New York was found guilty of a wire fraud charge in June. He will be convicted on 4 November.
Three additional plaintiffs, reportedly employed by Aloba to create phishing kits, remain outside the US.
