Ebay scammer gets 27 months for selling counterfeit software

Washington (DC) - A man has been sentenced to 27 months in prison after The US Justice Department discovered that he earned more than $4 million selling counterfeit software on eBay.

36-year-old Courtney Smith plead guilty to dozens of counts of counterfeiting. According to the Justice Department, the Indiana native sold high-end corporate software from Rockwell Automation in multiple auctions, receiving a total in excess of $4.1 million. The retail value of the software in question summed up to around $700,000.

Smith confessed that he purchased counterfeit version of the software on eBay and then made multiple copies to re-sell, advertising them as new, official versions of the applications, which went for as high as $11,000.

"The Department of Justice is committed to prosecuting individuals who exploit legitimate online auction sites to sell pirated software and commit other acts of fraud," said Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher.