top
tab
 Chacin
navpagecurve

Text Only Version

FAQ

December 2003

November 2003

October 2003

September 2003

August 2003

July 2003

June 2003

May 2003

April 2003

March 2003

February 2003

January 2003

December 2002

Home
Index
Search

 
About Us Divisions Press Community Employment navcurve
navbar

Department of Justice Logo 

U.S. Department of Justice

United States Attorney
Northern District of California

 

11th Floor, Federal Building
450 Golden Gate Avenue, Box 36055
San Francisco, California  94102

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 

 

Tel: (415) 436-7200
Fax: (415) 436-7234

 

May 3, 2004

United States Attorney Kevin V. Ryan for the Northern District of California announced that Francisco Chacin, age 21, of Hialeah, Florida, was sentenced today to 30 months in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release.  The defendant was also ordered to pay $33,672 in restitution.  Mr. Chacin pled guilty on August 29, 2003, in federal court in San Jose to one count of wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343.

Over a period of time from approximately August 2002 through April 2003, Mr. Chacin falsely and fraudulently obtained user names and passwords for eBay and Paypal accounts, allowing him to "hijack" those accounts and engage in fraudulent auctions and purchases. 

Specifically, the defendant created and used fake, or "spoofed," eBay webpages, that appeared to be valid eBay webpages, but in reality were false and fraudulent, and which requested eBay users to log on and enter their user names and passwords.  He then emailed messages that appeared to be from eBay, directing the recipients to connect to a linked webpage.  Upon clicking on the webpage link, the recipient was connected not to the legitimate eBay website, but to the above-described spoof site created and maintained by the defendant.  This spoof site was virtually identical in appearance to the valid eBay site, and directed the individual to login with a user name and password.  Mr. Chacin had set up the spoof site to incorporate a "back-end email account" which, upon the individual logging on, would secretly email that individual's user name and password to an email account controlled by him.  In this way, he was able to obtain the user names and passwords for eBay accounts without the owner's permission or knowledge.

Once Mr. Chacin falsely and fraudulently obtained the user names and passwords for the eBay accounts, he held fraudulent auctions under those accounts, offering items for sale that he did not have and would not deliver.  When an individual won the auction, Mr. Chacin directed payment terms, collected that individual's payment, but never delivered the auctioned items.  The defendant also sold or attempted to sell the fraudulently obtained account information to others over the internet.

The maximum statutory penalty for the violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343 is twenty years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.  

The prosecution is the result of an investigation by agents of the United States Secret Service, assisted by the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Boone County (KY) Sheriff's Office.  The investigation was overseen by the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (CHIP) Unit of the U.S. Attorney's Office.  Matt Parrella is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the case.  eBay cooperated with the U.S. Secret Service in the investigation.

A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney's Office's website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.  Related court documents and information may be found on the District Court website at www.cand.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.cand.uscourts/gov.

All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney's Office should be directed to Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew J. Jacobs at (415) 436-7181.

mattmed