CHEYENNE — A local teenager has been charged in connection with an elaborate computer virus scheme that officials say turned thousands of personal computers into “zombies” and used them to rip off banking and credit card information.
Jason Michael Milmont, 19, has agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge of unauthorized access to a computer to further a fraud, according to the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California.
Federal prosecutors allege that Milmont spread the virus, called the “Nugache Worm,” through junk e-mail and by tricking people to download a phony copy of a peer-to-peer software program called Limewire.
Once the virus was inside a computer, Milmont could order the machine to turn over valuable banking and credit card information, court records allege.
“All the data stored on the compromised machines would be available to (the) defendant, including, but not limited to, credit card information,” according to court documents filed by prosecutors.