Man charged in Hurricane Katrina phishing scams

A Miami man has been charged with setting up a number of phishing Web sites designed to steal credit card information from Hurricane Katrina relief donors.

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Jovany Desir, 20, was indicted Tuesday on five counts of wire fraud related to several scams, the U.S. Attorney's office said in a statement. He is alleged to have set up fake Web sites designed to look like those of the American Red Cross, PNC Bank, eBay Inc. and Paypal. Two Canadian banks were also spoofed: Banque Nationale and Desjardins Credit Union.

There were reports of widespread scamming in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and parts of the Gulf Coast. Last September, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation warned that more than half of the Hurricane Katrina aid sites that it had reviewed were registered to people outside of the U.S. and likely to be fraudulent.

The U.S. Attorney's Office did not say how many victims were taken in by these most recent scams, but the Banque Nationale site received about 8,500 hits, it said.

The charges carry a maximum sentence of 50 years in prison and a fine of US$1 million.

For all this risk, Desir may not have made much money from the affair. According to the U.S. attorney's statement, he sold the phishing sites to "would-be scammers."

His take: $150 each.