The Changning District People's Court has given Zhao Chenchen a lighter sentence because he had pleaded guilty and his parents returned all the ill-gotten money and paid a fine of 20,000 yuan (USD 3,176).
Prosecutors said 16-year-old Zhao was a student majoring in information technology at a local vocational school. As a computer fan, Zhao joined an online chat room of hackers and began to learn hacking skills from a teacher, the Shanghai Daily reported today.
In April last year, the teacher asked Zhao to hack several foreign websites with him. The pair attacked several Japanese shopping websites selling furniture, computers and construction materials and Zhao stole more than 6,000 pieces of credit card information from two of those websites, the court heard.
Prosecutors said the master later sold the clients' data and gave 22,000 yuan (USD 3,494) to Zhao.
Zhao admitted taking the money in court but said he did not know that the credit card information was sold to forge fake credit cards.
