Name Hieu Ngo | ||
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Hieu Minh Ngo is a Vietnamese hacker and identity thief. He was convicted in the United States of stealing hundreds of thousands of persons' personally identifiable information and in 2015 was sentenced to 13 years in U.S. federal prison.
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Computer crimes
Ngo is a Vietnamese national. From 2007 to 2013, he operated a "massive international hacking and identity theft scheme from his home in Vietnam" in which he stole personally identifiable information (such as names, Social Security numbers, and bank account data) of 200 million U.S. citizens. Ngo obtained this data by hacking companies' databases, then advertised and offered (on two websites he operated, which were latter shuttered) the stolen information for purchase by other cybercriminals. Ngo was also able to obtain data from Court Ventures, an Experian subsidiary, by "posing as a private investigator operating out of Singapore."
Prosecution and sentence
In February 2013, Ngo entered the United States and was arrested after U.S. Secret Service investigators lured Ngo to Guam "to consummate a business deal with a man he believed could deliver huge volumes of consumers' personal and financial data for resale." He subsequently pleaded guilty to federal crimes: (1) wire fraud, (2) identity fraud, (3) access device fraud, and (4) four counts of computer fraud and abuse. In July 2015, U.S. District Judge Paul J. Barbadoro sentenced Ngo, then age 25, to 13 years in prison. Ngo gained almost USD 2 million from his crimes.