Two men pleaded guilty of posing as Apple, Netflix, and Spotify in millions of emails and stealing data. They then sold it for £140,000 worth of cryptocurrency.
Gary Kelly, 32, and Craig Gorton, 30, carried out numerous phishing campaigns and stole information of nearly 64,000 credit cards and 24,000 Apple IDs. The conmen confessed that they sold data at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday. Kelly was sentenced to 40 months of jail and Bury for a two-year term, suspension of two years.
The North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (NWROCU) spokesman said the men were caught after officers got to know of the phishing. Phishing is a process where a con artist poses as a reputable company to gain access to your bank details or passwords. Detectives of NWROCU’s Dark Web Operations Team searched their homes in July and December 2019.
Devices seized contained stolen customer databases. Kelly, Bolton, and Gorton carried out many such campaigns where they sent millions of emails to people and posed as Apple, Netflix, and Spotify.
After getting the data of the victim, they sold it on a website. Chris McClellan, NWROCU’s Det Insp, urged victims of phishing scams to report it and people to take steps to ensure the safety of their personal and financial data, like changing passwords and applying extra encryption.