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Man Jailed After Using LimeWire For ID Theft

Posted by Soulskill on from the guess-his-making-available-defense-didn't-work-either dept.

angry tapir sends along this excerpt from PC World: "A Seattle man has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for using the LimeWire file-sharing service to lift personal information from computers across the US. The man, Frederick Wood, typed words like 'tax return' and 'account' into the LimeWire search box. That allowed him to find and access computers on the LimeWire network with shared folders that contained tax returns and bank account information. ... He used the information to open accounts, create identification cards and make purchases. 'Many of the victims are parents who don't realize that LimeWire is on their home computer,' [said Kathryn Warma of the US Attorney's Office]."

4 of 241 comments (clear)

  1. Re:how dumb by CannonballHead · · Score: 4, Informative
    Did you even read the summary, by any chance?

    'Many of the victims are parents who don't realize that LimeWire is on their home computer,' [said Kathryn Warma of the US Attorney's Office]."

  2. Re:Crime was not accessing the data by badboy_tw2002 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Apparently the prosecutor did not agree:

    * Wood was sentenced Tuesday to 39 months in prison and three years of supervised release for wire fraud, accessing a protected computer without authorization
    * to commit fraud, and aggravated identity theft. He was tried in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.

    Key word is "protected computer". Not sure how something sharing *.* on limewire is considered "protected". Guy needed a better lawyer.

  3. Re:how dumb by CannonballHead · · Score: 5, Informative

    Many people from older generations that have not had the time to learn how to use the computer aside from e-mail and online news have no clue. And computers aren't as static as we geeks like to think they are, and they slow down or speed up occasionally, install updates, etc.

    For someone who has really no clue how it works and isn't even used to using it, it's very easy to see how they could not notice.

  4. Re:Protected!? by wbren · · Score: 4, Informative

    What chain of idiocy determined the computers he accessed to be "protected"?

    The U.S. Congress -- More specifically, the Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act expanded the definition of "protected computer" to include basically any computer with a network connection. More information is available at:

    --
    -William Brendel