[PCWorld]

Post your comments for AOL Phisher Gets Seven Year Sentence here

[Alber1690]

Only 7 years?! Sheesh, these people need to be punished far worse.

[JimH443]

Editing the article way down, here's what I find odd:

Quote

Last year Dolan pleaded guilty to fraud and aggravated identity theft charges. Federal prosecutors had argued that he masterminded a scam in which he and five other men harvested thousands of AOL e-mail addresses. Dolan had previously admitted that the scam had netted more than $400,000 from 250 or more victims, Chang argued in the memorandum. Proceeds from the crime were used to purchase gaming consoles, laptop computers and gift cards, the indictment states.

Assuming an equal six way split, that's over $60k each. I presume that the article would focus on the big ticket items purchased. Gaming consoles, laptops and gift cards? Really? Something sounds fishy here.

Also from the article:

Quote

He (Dolan's lawyer) argued that there were probably less than 50 victims of the scam, and that victim losses were closer to US$43,000 -- far less than argued by the government.

Now THIS sounds a heck of a lot more believable if the proceeds are used to buy gaming consoles, laptops and gift cards.

I'm not in any way condoning their actions, but this article makes me wonder just how honest the government is.

[casinolady]

Jim -
I agree a lot more was spent then what they are saying in this article. Maybe the government and the Credit Card companies don't want the public to know how much people really got ripped off. I do believe a lot of the money was used for small purchases looking at the ages of this group. But only 43,000 no way it was much much more money they accumulated. So sad to have talent and waste it cheating other people out of it.

[JimH443]

I actually am more prone to believing the $43k figure. The article says that Dolan had "admitted" to scamming $400k. To whom did he admit this? The article never states this. The fact that the U.S. ADA is making this statement would SEEM to imply that it was said to police. If this WERE the case (which I doubt), the more correct term to use in the article would be "confess" - not "admit." This may seem like semantics, and it kinda is, but when such vital information is missing from a story you've got to glean insight wherever possible. I strongly suspect he admitted it to his buddies... in which case the word "brag" would include the connation that I find very easy to believe.

[dwil49]

What difference does it make how much they scammed people for? The fact is they did it and it was illegal. I say toss their butts in the slammer for life! Or at the very least they should be banned from using a computer for life!

[youdroppedsoap]

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