James Delahunty
11 Sep 2007 19:47
A Seattle man has been arrested for allegedly using OP2P software including Soulseek and Limewire to steal personal/private information of users. Gregory Kopiloff, 35, scoured through users systems looking for information he could use such as income tax returns, student financial aid applications, credit reports and other sensitive data that would help him impersonate the victims
He used this data to create bogus credit card accounts which he then used to order thousands of dollars worth of goods, which he later sold on for half the price. So far, investigators have identified 83 different victims. He has been charged with mail fraud, computer hacking and aggravated identity theft offenses and faces a maximum of 29 years in prison.
These scams are possible because many users unknowingly share their entire hard drives, or sensitive folders on P2P networks. This often happens by accident while updating software but it also can be a case of the user not understanding how to use P2P networks and what the significance of a shared folder actually is.
Source:
The Register