American teen scammer charged

12 April 2012

A 16-year-old boy has been charged in a juvenile petition with stealing account information from about 200 America Online members to go on an Internet shopping spree.

The youth purchased drug paraphernalia, a computer monitor, speakers and a scanner, a DVD player, a video camera and a pair of Air Jordan basketball shoes totaling more than $1,600 using a hidden computer program that sent him the e-mail addresses of people in AOL chat rooms.

The program would automatically send customers e-mail messages allegedly from AOL telling them to re-enter their credit card numbers, telephone numbers, addresses, PIN numbers, passwords and screen names because of a system problem. About 200 AOL users fell for the scam.

"People are really dumb," the juvenile said. "I got stupid, probably because of the drugs."

The boy said he got caught because his drug use made him greedy. "I was teaching them a lesson," he told investigators. "They should thank me."

The boy was expected to enter a plea to two felony counts of misappropriation of personal identification this week and was placed in a juvenile shelter where he has no access to computers. American Online, the world's largest online service, periodically cautions its more than 34 million customers about Internet fraud and warns them not to give out their passwords or credit information.

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