Criminal mastermind would like to meet...
A man from Pennsylvania hatched a master plan to wipe out his debts by erasing the electronic records of them. It didn't go according to plan.
Zachary Landis, aged 27, owed about sixteen thousand dollars altogether, nine thousand of that being victim compensation for an assault he had committed, and the remainder in DUI fines and court costs. He decided that all he needed to do to clear his debts was hack into the court computer and erase the records.
Not having the computer skills himself to do this, Landis decided to subcontract the job to an experienced hacker. How do you find an experienced hacker capable of doing this? You advertise for one, of course, on Craigslist. What could possibly go wrong?
Detective Terry Dotts, also of Pennsylvania, happened to be reading that section of Craigslist and saw the advert. He initiated a conversation with Landis, pretending to be a hacker to confirm Landis's intentions. Tracking Landis down wasn't difficult as he had placed the advert on Craigslist using his own email address and phone number. This resulted in him being arrested, charged, and convicted of a felony for which he will serve a minimum of two years. And he still has the sixteen thousand dollars of debt to be paid.
24th November 2015