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Fake Hacker Found Guilty Following Gutsy Mitt Romney Extortion Scheme (softpedia.com)
An anonymous reader writes: "Michael Mancil Brown, 37, of Franklin, Tennessee, faces up to thirty years in prison, a fine up to $250,000, and orders of restitution to victims, because of a daring stunt he pulled off in 2012 that involved fake hacking the PricewaterhouseCoopers consulting firm, and US presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Back in 2012, Brown had the bright idea to write a letter alleging to have hacked PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) servers and stolen tax documents prior to 2010 for Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann," writes Softpedia. The "hacker" asked for $1 million in Bitcoin, and after publishing details about his fake hack online, he almost received it from a "third-party," but not before the FBI arrested him and then uncovered his lie. Last Friday, Brown was found guilty and then convicted of six counts of wire fraud and six counts of using facilities of interstate commerce to commit extortion.
I'll be curious to see what kind of sentence he gets in August. The "faces up to" maximum theoretical penalties are less useful than Comcast's "up to 50 Mbps*" advertising.
* speed may be significantly lower during peak periods, business hours, evenings,nights, weekends, maintenance windows, and other times.
The term doesn't mean squat. A fake "vague doer of vaguely bad things possibly involving a computer maybe"? That's really a bunch of mostly empty words strung together.
But that figures, for down at softpedia, fake journalism is all there is to be had. Chinesely cheap fake knockoff breathless fake journalism.
Gutsy would imply an act of bravery, what we have is an act of stupidity.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Losing a million dollars to a fake hack is Bush-level stupid.
I think firstposting has become quite the oldschool thing to do, actually. 2003–2005, the golden age of firstposting. Never forget!
He'll just write it off. The taxpayers spy him for the loss.
All their kind does is use people.
And so many sons will never return home because of his warmongering.
Even worse is that he asked a fortune teller if it was true.
And nothing ever bothers their kind.
What I find interesting is that you could almost get $1M without proving anything.
That's definitively a game changer for my career.
And believe that if a shaman pills a little water on them then they are without blame.
And so many sons will never return home because of his warmongering.
When he was governor of Massachusetts, and they invaded Vermont?
I'm wondering what the "victim" had to hide, to be willing to pay $1 million for it...
And blaming his man in Atlanta for this is even more stupid.
xians are superstitious.
All of our lives are on the line and if the SCOTUS had selected him, we could all be dead right now.
Corporations now make more money in write offs than on actually selling products.
If you ever get a call from a republican, don't answer it.
America's justice system is wimpy. Behead him, I say! Need to send a strong message! That's how the IS is winning! We gotta be better! Yee-haw!
It said a "third party" almost paid him. That could be anyone including a wealthy member of the opposite political party.
But the news here is always misleading baiting crap these days.
There are precious few articles here these days that you can really trust the headline or summary to be exactly what it sounds like.
Getting caught pulling a fake extortion would natural mean a fake negotiation followed by fake money (oh yeah, Bitcoin), and then a fake trial with a fake jail sentence.
That's why I usually follow the link to the article, and often google around to find some more about it.
So that's how I now know that Forbes says he faces up to twenty years, not thirty.
And after that, I'm still wondering what presidential candidate (or one of his supporters) would cough up $ 1M to keep his financial data secret, when other candidates publish their tax returns to prove that they can look their voters in the eye.
Maybe he should have filmed it and put it on his youtube channel. Then it wouldn't have been a real crime, right?
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Oops, 25, not 20.
In the grand scheme of an election--and the fact that Mitt Romney's net worth is 250 million--1 million isn't a lot of money. It would likely be worth paying that sum just to have control on when and how the tax information was released.
I have a friend in Banking, who tried to repeat the supposed method Mitt used to put 200+ mil in his 401k, even talked to a few folks at Bane Capital that he knew. After 2 years he gave up as he could find NO legal way to repeat this "Putting 200+million" in his 401k and void taxes.
Don't forget he also forced health care on everyone. Some of those people may have been foolish enough to get vaccinated.
So that's how I now know that Forbes says he faces up to twenty years, not thirty.
That may be, but Forbes probably infected you with so much malware that someone can hack your PricewaterhouseCoopersDingleheimersmith account if you have one.
Your "friend" might have had better luck if he were literate.
This isn't slashdot.
Get your shit together, this recent submission trend is appalling and you will lose what's left of this shell of a great website if you carry on like this.
Honestly, I think it's too late. Feels like this will dribble on for a few months then dry up completely and die.
Noticed the number of comments recently?
Available now from Flint, Michigan.
If you do not answer we will rape and kill you. If you answer we will rape and kill you. Whatever you do we will rape and kill you. That is the way of our kind. Our kind.
Clinton is a square shooter
This guy is facing a 25 year prison sentence and yet banksters who took down our economy by their playing in the casino got no prison time. We have 2 kinds of justice in this country, one for the uber rich and one for the rest of us.
And after that, I'm still wondering what presidential candidate (or one of his supporters) would...keep his financial data secret, when other candidates publish their tax returns to prove that they can look their voters in the eye.
Trump
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Committing a crime in a country with robust law enforcement takes bravery...
But this extortionist is not merely "gutsy" — the "stunt" is also described in the write-up as "daring"... Carefully selecting terms and adjectives for (not so) subtle spin — while remaining factually correct — is what they teach in journalism classes. But some people are just natural — Vladimir Putin's weaponized propaganda organization would be most interested.
When the subject is described as "gutsy" and "daring", the punishment seems excessive — even if only to subconsciousness. Were it "plucky" and "outrageous" and a "crime" (or, better yet, a "felony"), rather than a "stunt", you'd be less likely to develop any sympathy for the criminal.
It also helps prevent any sympathy for the victim of the crime — see, it is Mitt Romney's own fault, according to many posters here, not all of them anonymous. (Should not have worn so short a skirt, if he did not want to be raped.)
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Unlike you!
I remember how Joe Biden, in describing the huge undertaking by hundreds of intelligence and support people, along with the on-the-scene deployment of SEAL Team 6 to actually do the deed of killing Bin Laden in his Pakistani sanctuary ... Biden described Obama's decision to follow the intel team's advice as "the gutsiest thing I've ever seen." That word appears to be in danger of no longer meaning anything at all like it used to, and might be worth a second thought on the part of editors and public figures, if this is how it's going to be put to use. Thank you for reading this gutsy comment.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Social Engineering is a very olde hacquer trick.
In fact didn't somebody named Mitnick do a bunch of time with next to no programming skills??
(but was barred from anything better than a 10 key calculator for another several years)
Obviously Romney is a crooked bastard, because with the 401k/IRA contribution caps, there is no way in hell someone could ever amass that much fortune inside one of those tax-sheltered retirement accounts. The only way this could ever be done is if purchases were made to vastly undervalued assets (like purchasing tens of thousands of shares of facebook for a penny each), and then 'realizing' the true value inside the tax-sheltered account to avoid all taxation on that 'growth'.
That would/should be highly illegal and Romney (or anybody else with massive sums in a 401k/IRA) should be audited.
Losing a million dollars to a fake hack is Bush-level stupid.
Please note that a "third party" offered to pay the blackmail. At least read the summary before attacking because of party affiliation.
I have a friend in Banking, who tried to repeat the supposed method Mitt used to put 200+ mil in his 401k, even talked to a few folks at Bane Capital that he knew. After 2 years he gave up as he could find NO legal way to repeat this "Putting 200+million" in his 401k and void taxes.
I can legally put as much money in my 401(k) as I want, with the caveat that I pay a higher tax rate for anything about the maximum annual limit. Not to mention, he has his maximum limit plus his wife's before paying any penalties.
Never mess with somebody who is much richer and meaner than you are.
Seriously, you thing they made their money by being nice and not being well connected?
Didn't slashdot cover this when it happened? Where's the link to the original slashdot story?
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
I'd go even further -- it's Obama-level stupid.
Politicians publish their returns to prove they haven't benefited financially from their time in office. Trump hasn't been in office, so there is no reason to see his returns. There will be in 2020.
> stunt he pulled off in 2012
He pulled it, but did not "pull it off." Subtle difference in language.
If he had pulled it off, we wouldn't be hearing about it now.
With Brown's extensive history of marijuana use it seems likely he just wanted the bitcoin to buy more drugs. Amazing that he'd put his life on the line just to get high instead of trying to be productive, functioning member of society.
What a fucking idiot.
Plus the whole cannibalism thing. They eat bread that they lie and claim is human flesh. They are so violent. Imagine forcing children to be cannibals and telling them you're going to burn them if they refuse to be cannibals b
Hyperbole much? Get your denominations right. While Catholicism believes the bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ, most denominations don't believe in transmogrification. Mitt Romney belongs to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We believe the bread and water of the Lord's supper are emblems of the Lord's Atonement.
Republicans don't trust anyone that doesn't splash themselves with Holy Ghost water.
Mitt Romney belongs to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The LDS Church does not make use of "holy water"; instead when our elders give blessings we anoint with consecrated olive oil.
Can someone explain this to me? I'm trying to understand what exactly he did. How did he convince them that he hacked their servers? Don't they have some kind of security team to look into this? Did he provide some additional data to them or did he just tell them he did it, in which case, how much of a threat is a lie?