A Russian hacker tricked by the FBI into visiting the US has been sentenced to three years in prison after being convicted of 20 counts of computer crimes, fraud and conspiracy.

According to news agency Reuters, prosecutors had pushed for the 27-year-old hacker, Vasiliy Gorshkov, to serve at least 16 years.

Gorshkov, who stole credit card IDs from Internet Service Providers and banks, was also was ordered to pay around $690,000 in damages.

The FBI caught Gorshkov and a second man, Alexey Ivanov, 23, by inviting them over for a job interview with a bogus company.

Gorshkov and Ivanov were asked to prove their hacking skills and, when they did, FBI agents logged their keystrokes and gained access to their passwords.

The agents then used the passwords to hack into a computer network in Russia to download evidence against the pair.