Online software pirate pleads guilty
Photo by: jurvetson
Jeremiah Mondello from Oregon pleaded guilty to charges in a district court last Wednesday. He was being held under charges of aggravated identity theft, criminal copyright infringement and mail fraud. He is accused of having made a profit of around $400,000 by illegally selling pirated software through online auction sites.
Mondello had earned a reputation as the most notorious among online software pirates. He had proved to be elusive to local law enforcement agencies. He finally came within the grip of law when the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) was able to trace more than one eBay and PayPal accounts to him. The organization claimed they were helped by a proprietary software, Auction Enforcement Tool, to make the connection.
SIIA is a gathering of professionals from the software and digital content industry. They claimed Mondello to have been their 26th victim this year since the launch of a major initiative against online software piracy in January this year.
Mondello is accused of stealing identities of online visitors and using these to hawk pirated software at online auction sites. He allegedly stole identities using keylogger software he distributed freely online. The keylogger lodged itself on computers of unsuspecting online visitors and spied on them when they were online. It made a note of all valuable login id’s like bank account login info, credit card info, and passed the same discreetly to Mondello.
He is said to have used these identities to open 40-odd accounts at eBay and PayPal. He made use of the multiple accounts in promoting his credibility and reliability on eBay as a seller.
Jeremiah Mondello faces $500,000 in fines and a prison sentence of up to twenty years. His sentence will be delivered on 23 July.
Source: PR Newswire
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