Men jailed for student phishing scam that stole GBP1.5 million
Two men have been jailed for their part in a cleverly-targeted phishing scam that managed to steal a total of £1.5 million ($2.3 million) from UK students by impersonating the official loans company.
Timed to coincide with the award of loans last August, the men - Britons Damola Clement Olatunji and Amos Njoroge Mwangi - were found to have separately sent out large numbers of emails asking students to confirm their bank account details via a bogus website.
Armed with the logins from those who responded, the men stole sums ranging from £1,000 to £5,000 from victims who probably ran to several thousand in number. After being alerted to the attack by the Student Loans Company, in December the men were among several individuals picked up by police. Police found that Mwangi's PC contained a number of programs that allowed him to design and control phishing emails and their associated websites.
