SDA India is an online resource for Software, Development,IT, Architecture, Open Source, Mobile, Security, Databases, Delphi, C, OS, Asp, .Net, Php, Xml, Java

Recently, U.S. and Romanian authorities announced that thirty-eight people in the U.S. and Romania were charged in two accusations alleging they used complicated Internet phishing schemes to steal personal information of consumers and financial institutions.

Phishing involves sending fake official e-mails that apparently come from banks, convincing recipients to go to a fake website and enter their account numbers. Phishers sometimes include attachments that secretly install spyware that can find personal information and send it to third parties over the Internet.

Members of the Romanian-based crime ring were charged for tricking thousands of Internet users into handing over personal information, such as names, credit card data and Social Security information as well as other personally identifying information, which were then used in identity theft operations.

In Los Angeles, 33 people faced a 65 counts on a bevy of charges, including racketeering, bank fraud and identity theft. Prosecutors say phishers based in Romania snagged information about thousands of credit and debit card accounts and other personal data from people who answered spam e-mail. The data were then sent to the U.S. and encoded on magnetic cards that could be used to withdraw money from bank accounts.

Among the charges in the Los Angeles indictments are conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act; conspiracy in connection with access devices; unauthorized access to a protected computer; bank fraud; and aggravated identity theft.

The RICO conspiracy charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, bank fraud has a maximum sentence of 30 years, and device fraud conspiracy has a maximum sentence of seven and a half years. The unauthorized access count carries a maximum prison sentence of five years, and aggravated identify theft carries a mandatory two-year prison sentence.

"This kind of coordinated response is absolutely vital to our fight. International organized criminals who exploit the power and convenience of the Internet do not recognize national borders. Our efforts to stop them cannot end at our borders either," said Mark Filip, Deputy Attorney General.

More than half of the charged people are Romanian, but the scam operated from the United States, Canada, Pakistan and Portugal.