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Man Sentenced for Using File Sharing Programs to Commit Identity Theft
A thirty-five year old Seattle man has been sentenced by the U.S. District Court to 51 months in prison for using file sharing programs to commit identity theft. Gregory Kopiloff had pleaded guilty to mail fraud, accessing a protected computer without authorization to further fraud and aggravated identity theft. A news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office states that Kopiloff admitted to using peer to peer file sharing programs, including Limewire, to search the computers of persons who were part of file sharing networks in order to gain access to tax returns, credit reports, bank statements and student financial aid applications that they had stored on their computers. He used personal information taken from those materials to open credit accounts over the Internet and to purchase more than $73,000 worth of merchandise.
For additional information, visit:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_wa_kopiloff_sentenced.html