Russian gets long prison sentence for StubHub hack

A Russian man who defrauded eBay-owned online ticketing company StubHub by hacking into more than 1600 accounts with six others has been sentenced to as much as 12 years in prison in the United States.

Thirty-two-year old Vadim Polyakov was arrested in Spain in 2014 and later extradited to New York to stand trial. He plead guilty to receiving stolen e-tickets between March 2013 and January 2014, purchased with credit card and account information hacked from StubHub users.

He was this week sentenced to between four and 12 years in prison for his role in the scheme.

Polyakov was the leader of a gang of six, which included two other Russians, Nikolay Mateychuk and Sergei Kirin. 

The hackers used keyloggers and malware on users' computers as well as data breaches from other businesses that contained reused credentials to compromise over 1600 StubHub accounts.

The six illicitly obtained over 3500 e-tickets to concerts with popular music artists as well as sports events such as Yankees baseball games, American football and US Open Tennis matches.

New York and New Jersey residents Daniel Petryszyn, Laurence Brinkmeyer and Bryan Caputo resold the stolen tickets, and directed the money to PayPal accounts as well as banks in London and Toronto, Canada.

StubHub was defrauded over US$1 million by the six. 

Polyakov's accomplices are yet to be sentenced. Other individuals in London and Toronto who assisted the six by receiving money into their bank accounts are also still awaiting sentencing.