Texas Man Found Guilty in Phishing Attack on Los Angeles Superior Court

A Texas man has been found guilty of orchestrating a phishing scam against the Los Angeles County Superior Court and faces a maximum sentence of more than 350 years in federal prison. Oriyomi Sadiq Aloba, 33, hacked into the court’s system and sent approximately 2 million malicious phishing emails, according to the Department of Justice. Aloba was convicted Thursday on 27 federal counts, including one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 15 counts of wire fraud, and one count of attempted wire fraud. Aloba reportedly cost the court more than $45,000 in paid time responding to the scam and more than $15,000 in combined actual and intended losses to credit-card victims. As part of the scam, employees were prompted to supply their banking login credentials and credit-card information. The Los Angeles County District Attorney initially charged Aloba before the United States Attorney’s Office took over the case for federal prosecution. A co-defendant pleaded guilty last month, and three other co-defendants remain at-large outside the U.S. Aloba’s sentencing hearing is set for Oct. 21.