Suspect Who Stole Unpublished Books In Phishing Attacks Arrested

Share post:

The Department of Justice confirmed in a press release the arrest of a 29-year-old Fillippo Bernardini who allegedly was involved in a fraudulent scheme in which hundreds of manuscripts were obtained in advance.

Bernardini also allegedly sent phishing emails targeting employees of a New York City-based literary scouting firm.

FBI’ New York Office Assistant Director-in-Charge Michael J. Driscoll added that “Mr. Bernardini used his insider knowledge of the industry to get authors to send him their unpublished books and texts by posing as agents, publishing houses, and literary scouts.”

If found guilty of wire fraud, Bernardini faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a further two years for a count of aggravated identity theft.

According to U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, “Filippo Bernardini allegedly impersonated publishing industry individuals to have authors, including a Pulitzer prize winner, send him prepublication manuscripts for his own benefit.”

The fraudulent scheme, which began in August 2016, involved Bernardini using fake email accounts linked to more than 160 domains that deceived literary talent agencies, publishers and literary scouting agencies.

For more information, read the original story in BleepingComputer.

Featured Tech Jobs

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Related articles

X/Twitter cracks down on criticism and suspends Irish journalist

Journalist Séamas O’Reilly has expressed disbelief and amusement after his account on X (formerly Twitter) was suspended shortly...

Elon Musk: Allegation of illegal drug use concern board and investors

Elon Musk, the renowned CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is currently embroiled in controversy following allegations of possible...

BlackBerry names new CEO, will split cybersecurity and IoT businesses

BlackBerry’s new leader is the former head of its cybersecurity business unit. The Waterloo, Ont., company said this morning that John Giamatteo is its new chief executive officer and a member of its board of directors, effective immediately. Richard Lynch, who has served as interim chief executive officer since Nov. 4, after the departure of

Microsoft Hires Sam Altman And Greg Brockman To Spearhead New AI Research Unit

Microsoft announced that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and ex-president Greg Brockman will lead a newly formed advanced AI...

Become a member

New, Relevant Tech Stories. Our article selection is done by industry professionals. Our writers summarize them to give you the key takeaways