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Note To Criminals — Don't Call Tech Support

Billosaur writes "Darwin Awards, here he comes: Ars Technica has up a story about a would-be identity thief who did himself in by calling tech support about printer drivers. Timothy Short must have thought he'd hit the mother-lode when he stole a PC and a Digimarc printer from the Missouri Department of Revenue, perhaps with dreams of cranking out thousands of fake ids. Problem: he could not unlock the computer he stole and without the necessary drivers, he couldn't use the printer. Ever resourceful, Short called Digimarc tech support a couple of days later (twice), which brought him to the attention of a Secret Service agent, who recognized his voice from a recording of the calls. Short now faces a $250,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison."

5 of 266 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Waaaiiit a minute... by UninvitedCompany · · Score: 3, Informative

    One might conclude that the Service listened to a recording of the conversation. Many if not most tech support and customer service calls are recorded.

  2. Re:It Takes More Than Just Technology... by kd5ujz · · Score: 4, Informative

    One way to spot a fake Texas DL is to check the word "Directive" (In the sentence "Directive to physician has been filed at tel #") on the back of the license. The first "i" will not have a dot.

    --
    -William
    God is everything science has yet to explain.
  3. Re:It Takes More Than Just Technology... by Afrosheen · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually I just checked mine, and since the authentic license (like mine) is missing the dot on that i, the fake will *have* the dot on the i. I guess that's what you meant to say.

  4. Re:In the realms of funny.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative
  5. Re:Waaaiiit a minute... by GPL+Apostate · · Score: 3, Informative

    It was a specialized stolen printer, a kind intended to print government IDs. I don't think it was like your deskjet.

    --
    Microsoft says legacy (serial/parallel) ports are bad. They don't obfuscate the hardware enough.