BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT (BNO NEWS) – A Romanian citizen was sentenced on Monday to approximately seven months in prison for his role in a phising scheme that affected several Connecticut residents, U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy said.

Cornel Ionut Tonita, 28, of Galati Romania pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud in connection with electronic mail on January 14, 2010. Tonita was paid for harvesting email addresses from Internet sites, focusing in colleges and universities. On March 2005, he provided 9,811 email addresses to other conspirators knowingly that they would be used for spamming.

A phising scheme uses the Internet in order to obtain personal and financial data using fraud and deceit. In this case Tonita and his co-conspirators pretended to be Connecticut-based People’s Bank.

Tonita was arrested in the sea border crossing in Dubrovnik, Croatia by the Interpol and extradited to the U.S. on September 4, 2009. After his sentence he will be deported to Romania.