Frederick Eugene Wood has been sentenced to 39 months in prison for organizing a scheme that utilized a peer-to-peer file sharing system to steal personal information from individuals' computers.

The 34-year-old Seattle resident also was sentenced to three years of supervised release for wire fraud, accessing a protected computer without authorization to further fraud, and aggravated identity theft. 

From the release.

According to records filed in the case, law enforcement became aware of WOOD’s activities in November 2007, when a Seattle resident reported that he had been cheated when he attempted to purchase an Apple computer through an offering on Craigslist.  The victim had met the seller at a local coffee shop, and was given an Apple computer box in return for his check.  After the meeting the man discovered there was only a book and a glass vase in the box – no computer. 

Using a different email address the man set up another transaction with the same seller and alerted police.  A Seattle Police officer posed as the buyer, and after WOOD was positively identified as the prior fraudulent seller, he was arrested. 

A computer box that contained just a book was seized from him.  In WOOD’s car police found multiple fake identifications as well as a computer containing documents with personal information for more than 120 people across the country.  A computer analysis revealed there were tax returns, bank statements and canceled checks on the computer from as far away as New York, Massachusetts, Georgia, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Louisiana, Oregon and California. 

The analysis also revealed that WOOD had used the peer-to-peer file sharing program Limewire to access the personal information stored on other people’s computers.  With this information, WOOD allegedly made forged checks which he used to make various purchases, including buying high value electronics items.  Some of these items were later sold on Craigslist.

In March, Wood's associate -- Gregory Kopiloff -- was sentenced to 51 months in prison for Mail Fraud, Accessing a Protected Computer without Authorization to Further Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft.  Kopiloff admitted that he used file sharing programs to steal people’s personal identifying information from their computers, and use it to commit fraud.