A California man who allegedly duped AOL users into handing over credit card details to a fraudulent website has been arrested in the US. Police charged Jeffrey Brett Goodin, 46, of Azusa, with wire fraud and other charges over allegations he masterminded an aggressive phishing scam.

Goodin allegedly sent thousands of emails that posed as messages from AOL's billing department warning customers needed to update their payment information or risk losing access to their accounts. Prospective marks were directed towards a fraudulent website and invited to hand over sensitive personal details including credit and debit card information that Goodin allegedly used to make fraudulent purchases.

Phishing frauds are becoming an increasingly popular scam. According to the latest available figures from the Anti-Phishing Working Group, 17,000 such fraudulent attacks were launched in November alone. ®

Related stories

• eCard scammer avoids jail (24 March 2009)

  https://www.theregister.com/2009/03/24/ecard_scammer_sentencing/

• US and Romania dredge up 38 phishing suspects (20 May 2008)

  https://www.theregister.com/2008/05/20/us_romania_nets_phishing_suspects/

• AOL phisher nets six years' imprisonment (13 June 2007)

  https://www.theregister.com/2007/06/13/aol_fraudster_jailed/

• AOL phishing fraudster found guilty (17 January 2007)

  https://www.theregister.com/2007/01/17/aol_phishing_fraudster/

• Phishers aim to hook MySpace users (5 June 2006)

  https://www.theregister.com/2006/06/05/myspace_phishing_attack/

• 'Smart' phishing attack targets BoI (2 May 2006)

  https://www.theregister.com/2006/05/02/boi_phishing_attack/

• Phishing fraudsters offer cash reward (14 March 2006)

  https://www.theregister.com/2006/03/14/chase_phishing_scam/

• AOL sues mystery phishers for $18m (1 March 2006)

  https://www.theregister.com/2006/03/01/aol_phishing_lawsuits/

• Russian keyloggers hit bank customers (8 February 2006)

  https://www.theregister.com/2006/02/08/france_keylogs_losses/

• AOL UK's email suffers collywobbles (7 February 2006)

  https://www.theregister.com/2006/02/07/aol_email/

• Punters continue to flee AOL (2 February 2006)

  https://www.theregister.com/2006/02/02/aol_numbers/

• Yahoo! phishing warning (24 January 2006)

  https://www.theregister.com/2006/01/24/yahoo_phishing_warning/

• Phishing fraudsters target Apple (17 January 2006)

  https://www.theregister.com/2006/01/17/apple_phish/

• Spear phishers target eBay (5 January 2006)

  https://www.theregister.com/2006/01/05/ebay_spear_phishing/

• Consumers improving security, but gaps remain (7 December 2005)

  https://www.theregister.com/2005/12/07/aol_ncsa_home_pc_security_survey/

• Brits fall prey to phishing (3 May 2005)

  https://www.theregister.com/2005/05/03/aol_phishing/

• AOL seeks to block phishing sites (22 April 2005)

  https://www.theregister.com/2005/04/22/aol_seeks_to_block_phishing_sites/

• Banks 'wasting millions' on two-factor authentication (15 March 2005)

  https://www.theregister.com/2005/03/15/2-factor_auth_is_pants/

• Phishing for dummies: hook, line and sinker (2 November 2004)

  https://www.theregister.com/2004/11/02/phishing_tabbed_browsers/