Phillip Fleitz, an affiliate marketer who who promoted himself as a computer security expert, was sentenced today for his hacking of computer networks to illegally collect emails and phone numbers to spam people. Judge Maurice Cohill Jr sentenced him to 27 months in jail, saying that his scheme was “sophisticated and serious.”
Fleitz mainly used his spamming to promote free gift card offers via SMS or email to various popular CPA Networks.
He was one of 12 people federally charged for marketing their skills on Darkcode.com, a cybercriminal marketplace. Seventy people in the U.S. and 19 other countries were targeted in that takedown totally internationally.
His partner Naveed Ahmed, however only received probation for his actions, partially because as his attorney claimed that he was only a misguided young man who fully assisted the authorities from the moment of his arrest to name his co-conspirators and the CPA Networks that hired him and his partners.
Ahmed was a systems administrator and master’s degree student at the University of South Florida, and his sentence allows him to continue working with computers as long as he is monitored by a probation officer.
