Guilty plea in 'phishing scheme' that victimized thousands

The 22-year-old con man's scheme bilked hundreds of thousands of dollars from thousands of people, including about 100 in Minnesota.

By Paul Walsh, Star Tribune

Last update: October 7, 2008 - 10:44 AM

A 22-year-old Romanian national has pleaded guilty in federal court to possessing unauthorized credit card numbers in connection with an Internet "phishing" scheme that bilked hundreds of thousands of dollars from thousands of people, including about 100 in Minnesota.

Sergiu Daniel Popa, of Shelby Township, Mich., pleaded guilty Monday in Minneapolis to possessing unauthorized access devices and to one count of aggravated identity theft. Popa was extradited to the U.S. from Spain in June.

According to the plea agreement:

From June 2000 through February 2007 Popa resided in New York and Michigan, and maintained two e-mail accounts. He used the accounts to harvest, via the phishing scheme, personal identification and financial information, such as names, addresses, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, Social Security account numbers and personal identification numbers of thousands of individuals, including some Minnesotans.

Popa created fraudulent e-mails and bogus Web sites and made them appear legitimate.

People who received his e-mails and went to his Web sites were tricked into providing their personal identification and financial information.

The plea agreement states that more than 7,000 people suffered actual losses totaling about $700,000 as a result of Popa's identity theft crimes.

According to a Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit, one email dated Jan. 16, 2005, sent from one of Popa's accounts, contained a file that had credit card information for about 5,889 people, 96 of whom were from Minnesota.

Sentencing for Popa has yet to be scheduled.

--PAUL WALSH