An email spoofer who set up a simple scam to defraud MSN customers pleaded guilty last week to wire fraud.

Matthew Thomas Guevara, 21, of Chicago, Illinois faces a jail sentence of up to 5 years and a fine of $250,000 for conning MSN customers into revealing their credit card details.

Guevara set up email accounts on Hotmail and a website called MSNbilling.com on Yahoo!. He then sent out emails purporting to be from MSN, asking customers to verify their account details. These were then forwarded to the Hotmail addresses. Guevara and another unnamed individual used the credit card info to buy stuff.

The amount of money stolen and the number of victims have not been revealed by the Department of Justice in its press release on the case. But according to Microsoft, approximately 180 people were compromised by the fraud.

In a statement hailing Guevara's conviction, Microsoft noted that it does not solicit personal information such as credit card numbers or Social Security numbers by email; it urges consumers to be wary of any requests for this type of information.

Guevara is to be sentenced on December 5. ®