Pretty much everyone thinks of P2P networks as places where you can share media and files.  Granted, that is their intention, but what is the security like with them?  A lot of people will have the false misconception that they are ‘anonymous’ and that their information is kept private.  Well, for anyone who believes that, there’s a man from Seattle that recently proved these points wrong.  By tapping into the Limewire and SoulSeek P2P networks, he was able to commit identity theft on a variety of unsuspecting users.  So if you use networks like this, you may want to either stay away from them or at least learn how you can protect yourself.

A Seattle man faces as many as 29 years in prison after being charged with using the LimeWire and Soulseek p-to-p (peer-to-peer) networks to commit identity theft.

Gregory Kopiloff was arrested Wednesday on charges of mail fraud, accessing a protected computer without authorization, and two counts of aggravated identity theft, said Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington. This is the first case that Langlie’s office is aware of that involves P-to-P identity-theft charges, she said.

In court filings, federal prosecutors alleged that Kopiloff began the scam around March 2005, using the p-to-p networks to search for victims who had accidentally configured their software to share sensitive documents. Hard drives were searched for “federal income tax returns, student financial aid applications, and credit reports that had been stored electronically,” court filings state.

Using that information, Kopiloff would fill out online credit card applications, then buy products such as iPods or computer hard drives, which he then resold for cash, typically at about 50 cents on the dollar, federal prosecutors claim.[more]

Tags: Identity Theft