37.5 Million dollar porn site CC fraud gets prison time!
 

http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/05/10/po....ap/index.html

that's awsome news... i hope they make more busts like this.

here's the story

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A man who admitted illegally using credit card information of about 900,000 people to sign them up for pornographic Web sites was sentenced Monday to more than 11 years in prison.

Kenneth H. Taves, 52, was also ordered to pay restitution for the scheme, which prosecutors estimated netted him $37.5 million.

About $12.8 million has been recovered, and another $8.1 million is believed to be in banks in the South Pacific island of Vanuatu. The rest of the money has not been found, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Whittlesey.

Taves, of Malibu, ran a business called NetFill that provided access to porn sites for $19.95 a month. In 1997 and 1998, he charged that fee to about 900,000 credit cards of people who had never used the service, prosecutors said. He bought the credit card information from a Southern California bank for $5,000.

Taves, who pleaded guilty to the fraud charges in 2001, was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison.

The sentencing delay was due to efforts to determine the full amount lost in the case and because Taves switched attorneys several times, officials said.

Taves' lawyer did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday

now another question.... what the FUCK kind of bank sells members credit card information????

No shit...that was one of the first things I thought about.

almost all of them

That's complete bullshit.... That bank should be responsible for all funds not recovered.

wow, they should fry the bank also and not just the guy, youd think your bank is one of the most trust worthy places

Banks sell all your information. Read the fine print when you get your bank cards.

:BangBang: :BangBang: :BangBang:

Damn.. banks suck. :(

Wow, is this true?

How can anybody protect themselves from this kind of fraud if your cc info can be given to any Tom and Dick who can shell out $5k for a complete list of it?

Scary.

It's now 2004 and this scheme was pulled off in 1998. He'll be out in 11 years (likely earlier if he is illegible for parole) and he'll be living like a king in the Galapagos Islands with the money he stashed away.

holy shit :eek2

$5,000 for 900,000 credit card numbers? nice!

i just learned something new

Would have been a sweet ass deal for him if he had gotten away with it.

Wow, I hav a Dutch creditcard...I am pretty sure, according to the Dutch law, they can not give any info out. Only that I have one. That's about it

Andre

oh boy.

Somewhere some evil affiliates are menacingly rubbing their thieving hands together after reading this thread. :( :helpme

yeah rich.. but probably a broken man with no friends.

I'm glad I only charged 400k cards...

With $39 million you can buy all the friends you need, and more.