Terrorism's Hook into Your Inbox

From Terrorism's Hook into Your Inbox:

The global jihad landed in Linda Spence's e-mail inbox during the summer of 2003, in the form of a message urging her to verify her eBay account information. The 35-year-old New Jersey resident clicked on the link included in the message, which took her to a counterfeit eBay site where she unwittingly entered in personal financial information. Ultimately, Spence's information wound up in the hands of a young man in the UK who investigators said was the brains behind a terrorist cell that sought to facilitate deadly bombing attacks against targets in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. Spence's stolen data made its way via the Internet black market for stolen identities to biochemistry student Tariq al-Daour, 21, one of three UK residents who pleaded guilty this week to a terrorism charge of using the Internet to incite murder. The trio used computer viruses and stolen credit card accounts to set up a network of communication forums and Web sites that hosted everything from tutorials on computer hacking and bomb-making to videos of beheadings and suicide bombing attacks in Iraq.