A Chicago man pleaded guilty on Sept. 12 to wire fraud in connection with a scheme that used a phony Web site to steal credit card and account information from customers of Microsoft Corp."s Microsoft Network (MSN) Internet service provider business. The plea agreement is the latest salvo in the government"s stepped-up efforts against identity theft and so-called "phisher" Web sites, which mimic legitimate Web sites and trick unsuspecting Internet users into divulging sensitive personal and financial information.
As part of a plea agreement, 21-year-old Matthew Thomas Guevara acknowledged that he set up a Web site, www.msnbilling.com, that was designed to harvest personal financial and account information. Guevara then sent e-mail from Hotmail accounts to MSN customers asking them to visit the site and update their MSN account information, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).