'You've Won $72 Million and a Mercedes Benz': Phone Scammer Gets 6 Years in Prison After He Made the Mistake of Calling William Webster, Ex-FBI and CIA Director (washingtonpost.com)

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'You've Won $72 Million and a Mercedes Benz': Phone Scammer Gets 6 Years in Prison After He Made the Mistake of Calling William Webster, Ex-FBI and CIA Director (washingtonpost.com)

Posted by msmash on Tuesday February 12, 2019 @07:31AM from the oooops dept.

Reader McGruber writes: The Washington Post has an amusing story about phone scammer Keniel A. Thomas, who made the mistake of calling William H. Webster. Thomas told 90-year-old Webster that he had won $72 million and a new Mercedes Benz in the Mega Millions lottery, but that he needed to send $50,000 in taxes and fees to get his money. Thomas also told Webster he'd done his research on the top winner. "You're a great man," the scammer cajoled. "You was a judge, you was an attorney, you was a basketball player, you were in the U.S. Navy, homeland security. I know everything about you. I even seen your photograph, and I seen your precious wife."

Thomas's research didn't turn up everything. He didn't learn that the man he was calling was the former director of the FBI and the CIA, the only person ever to hold both jobs. And he didn't know that Webster would call him back the next day with the FBI listening in. Thomas was arrested in late 2017, after he landed in New York on a flight from Jamaica. He pleaded guilty in October and faced a prison term of 33 to 41 months under federal sentencing guidelines. But with Webster and his wife in the courtroom, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell on Friday added another 2 years to Thomas's sentence, giving him nearly six years to serve. Howell said that the scam qualified as "organized criminal activity" and that Thomas posed "a threat to a family member of the victim."

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Wait! WHAT? by NEDHead · 2019-02-12 07:36 · Score: 4, Funny

This is a scam? I just got that email 2 days ago! Damn!
1. Re:Wait! WHAT? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 07:42 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  This is a scam? I just got that email 2 days ago! Damn!
  And I'll bet that if you had called the FBI they would have ignored you.
2. Re: Wait! WHAT? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 08:20 · Score: 0
  
  I doubt you would have to have been the director of anything to wonder why someone would mention a Mercedes Benz and $72 million in the same sentence
3. Re:Wait! WHAT? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 08:56 · Score: 0
  
  Cdreimer left /. after 20+ years and posted 100+ videos in 2018. His trolls are still butthurt about this.
  The thing to do for him: post more videos :)
4. Re:Wait! WHAT? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 09:50 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  This is a scam from the government to make it seem like they actually give a damn about spammers calling you.
5. Re:Wait! WHAT? by msauve · 2019-02-12 10:45 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  "This is a scam?"
  
  Why yes, yes it is. We're supposed to have equal justice, but obviously unless you're a former FBI director, the system doesn't give a shit about you.
  
  As a prole, try getting any law enforcement to take action on a scam where you haven't already lost a million bucks. Ain't gonna happen. But, if you're part of the government elite, they'll organize a SWAT team to help you out just because you got a phone call.
  
  --
  "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
6. Re:Wait! WHAT? by Shaitan · 2019-02-12 10:46 · Score: 1
  
  No doubt but I'm okay with a double standard. If someone this stupid gets away with it we've broken natural selection altogether.
  If a student says you put glue on their chair and you get away with it that is one thing but the system is completely broken if you get away with putting glue on the principal's chair.
7. Re:Wait! WHAT? by Applehu+Akbar · 2019-02-12 10:49 · Score: 1
  
  And I'll bet that if you had called the FBI they would have ignored you.
  Years ago, long before there was an Internet, I did call the FBI on a PC purchase scam that crossed a state line, putting it in their jurisdiction. They did call me in for an interview, but I subsequently heard nothing.
8. Re:Wait! WHAT? by drinkypoo · 2019-02-12 11:45 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  If a student says you put glue on their chair and you get away with it that is one thing but the system is completely broken if you get away with putting glue on the principal's chair.
  The system is completely broken if putting glue on the principal's chair carries a heavier punishment than putting it on a fellow student's. Crap like that is why schools have a culture of bullying.
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
9. Re:Wait! WHAT? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 12:03 · Score: 0
  
  It is unlawful to harm or threaten to harm any public servant, his or her immediate family ...
  Plenty of statutes in plenty of jurisdictions carry heavier penalties if an offense is committed against a public servant.
  And that's before we even consider the application of the SAME laws when applied to different members of society.
10. Re:Wait! WHAT? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 14:44 · Score: 0
  
  Lol, his videos are all along the lines of "8 views, uploaded 2 months ago"
  SAD.
11. Re: Wait! WHAT? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 23:43 · Score: 0
  
  The police rarely, if ever, "protect and serve" individuals except to tell themselves how magnanimous they are.
  Their job is to "protect and serve" property owners, billionaires and corporations, hence Selma, Standing Rock, assassinating Black Panthers, not investigating crimes against poor, indigenous peoples and minorities.
12. Re:Wait! WHAT? by Jason+Levine · 2019-02-13 03:39 · Score: 1
  
  I had my identity stolen. Somehow (I never found out how), they got my name, address, Social Security Number, and Date of Birth. They opened a credit card in my name. Luckily for me, they paid for rush delivery of the card before changing the address and the card wound up at my house. The FBI had zero interest in taking the case because I hadn't lost enough money. My local police grudgingly investigated but told me quite frankly that it wasn't a high priority because "we'll probably track them to some other location and that police department will get the arrest." Sure enough, the investigation petered out after a bit. The thieves never faced punishment for my identity theft and are still doing it to this day for all I know because apparently you can get away with this stuff if you fly below the radar of the FBI and local law enforcement.
  
  --
  My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 07:37 · Score: 5, Insightful

You can get justice - if you are an important person.
1. Re:The moral of the story by ShanghaiBill · 2019-02-12 07:43 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  You can get justice - if you are an important person.
  Indeed. According to the summary, the judge slapped an extra two years onto the sentence because of who the perp targeted.
  So we are willing to devote lots of taxpayer funded resources to prosecuting this one guy for targeting a VIP, but doing something about the millions of scammy phone calls that little people face everyday remains a low priority.
2. Re: The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 07:44 · Score: 0
  
  Some people can find joy in a rainy day. Others would find something to complain about if they fell in a barrel of t*ts.
3. Re: The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 07:51 · Score: 0
  
  I mean, if the barrel were just tits that'd be pretty disgusting without the rest of the body.
  
  Or I'd fear hurting/being hurt by all the birds.
4. Re: The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 07:55 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah or what if the claim that the barrel was full of tits was the next scam in the line of scams
5. Re:The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 07:57 · Score: 0
  
  The director never really had potential to be a victim. However this guy won't be targeting other potential victims, it will make make some people think twice before becoming a criminal as well which has positive benefit on society for us all.
6. Re:The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 07:59 · Score: 0, Troll
  
  You can get justice - if you are an important person.
  Or know important people, or have money.
  If you're poor or not white, you get nothing. If mommy and daddy have money and your lawyer argues "affluenza" you get off easy.
  The US justice system is a joke, and has been for a very long time. This is just another example of it.
7. Re:The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 08:01 · Score: 1
  
  First class citizens = wealthy elite, celebs, politicians and anyone they deem worthy
  Second class citizens = most of us
  Third class citizens = those imprisoned, felonized, adherents to the UCMJ, the undocumented, and those under or over a certain age
8. Re:The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 08:02 · Score: 0
  
  You can get justice - if you are an important person.
  Or escape it.
9. Re:The moral of the story by PopeRatzo · 2019-02-12 08:04 · Score: 2
  
  Indeed. According to the summary, the judge slapped an extra two years onto the sentence because of who the perp targeted.
  I'm pretty sure that the extra two years was for being really really stupid.
  
  --
  You are welcome on my lawn.
10. Re: The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 08:05 · Score: 0
  
  The article most obviously does not say anywhere that 2 years were added because of who it targeted.
11. Re:The moral of the story by ShanghaiBill · 2019-02-12 08:09 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  it will make make some people think twice before becoming a criminal
  Not really. Most scam calls originate outside the US. This "one guy" is atypical, and is not where the FBI should be focusing their resources.
  He was also an idiot who provided a valid callback number that was registered in his own name. So the message from the FBI is "We only catch the dumb ones", which isn't much of a deterrent.
  What we need is a change to telecom regulations that make call spoofing so easy. Most other countries are far less welcoming to scammers, and have much less of a problem with it. Even India makes spoofing illegal for domestic calls, although obviously not for outbound international calls.
  If an entity owns and controls multiple numbers that can be tracked back to that entity, then "spoofing" those numbers has legitimate uses. But there is no valid reason to allow anyone to spoof a number they do not own and do not have a right to use.
  Feds: You need to fix the spoofing problem.
  Telcos: We can't. It is technically impossible.
  Feds: Starting next week, we will fine you $1000 per spoofed call.
  Telcos: Oh. We'll have it fixed in five minutes.
12. Re:The moral of the story by mysidia · 2019-02-12 08:14 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  we are willing to devote lots of taxpayer funded resources to prosecuting this one guy for targeting a VIP, but doing something about the millions of scammy phone calls that little people face everyday remains a low priority.
  "Quiet serfs. How dare you question the noble class? Here, we'll add $100 to your tax refund if you stop bringing this up."
13. Re:The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 08:19 · Score: 0
  
  Did you just assume his race?!?!?!?! Y I K E S
14. Re: The moral of the story by JaredOfEuropa · 2019-02-12 08:30 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  It was added because of bullcrap charges that they somehow made stick. "Organized criminal activity" and "a threat to a family member of the victim"? Come on... This sort of sentencing doesn't seem uncommon in US justice, so I wouldn't say it's because of who the victim was, but even so it is hardly just. Charge him with the scam and hand down a stiff sentence for that, don't add a couple of extra years for so called organized crime or posing a threat. If you think the sentencing for scams like this is too low, petition to have the laws changed.
  
  --
  If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
15. Re:The moral of the story by ShanghaiBill · 2019-02-12 08:39 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  I'm pretty sure that the extra two years was for being really really stupid.
  But wouldn't it make more sense to give the smart criminals extra jail time?
16. Re:The moral of the story by ripvlan · 2019-02-12 08:39 · Score: 1
  
  Absolutely - it's all on who you know. If you happen to have a phone tree to buddies at the FBI, they'll take care of the problem quickly.
  I'll bet a lot has to do with whether the person being called can hook the crook. I just heard a podcast where the police took over a woman's phone number because she was a known mark. She had been taken before and was on the "easy list." The police had the number forwarded to an agent who pretended to be the gullible woman, but was in fact an expert in reeling crooks in.
  I suspect the problem is too large. But more banks need to be like Western Union. If you go down to Western Union and try to wire money overseas their fraud dept intercepts it and tries to convince you that it might be fraud. Can families setup triggers on elderly parents that puts stops on large withdrawals etc ?
  You can't catch the criminals. You need to dry up the market.
17. Re:The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 08:49 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  "According to the summary, the judge slapped an extra two years onto the sentence because of who the perp targeted."
  Unfortunately, the summary didn't quote this from the article:
  
  The conversation was one of many calls that Thomas made to Webster or his wife, Lynda, in 2014, including one in which he promised a bullet “straight to the head” of Lynda. ... But with Webster and his wife in the courtroom, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell on Friday added another 2½ years to Thomas’s sentence ... Thomas posed “a threat to a family member of the victim.”
  That's why Thomas got the two extra years.
18. Re:The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 08:59 · Score: 0
  
  Can I forward all of my telemarketers to him?
19. Re:The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 09:02 · Score: 0
  
  Justice was served by the jury not the judge. The judge was within his lawful prudence for the sentencing.
20. Re: The moral of the story by Antony+T+Curtis · 2019-02-12 09:41 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  The usual argument against stopping spoofing is that the average person won't answer the calls from a cold caller telemarketers.
  Sadly, organisations like the Direct Marketers Association have more political clout than consumer protection advocates
  
  --
  No sig. Move along - nothing to see here.
21. Re: The moral of the story by misnohmer · 2019-02-12 09:44 · Score: 1
  
  Or, maybe it's just "don't try to scam someone who spent their life tracking scammers". Kind of like "don't try to mug a black belt", or "if you're going to steal a hat, don't steal from a police officer on duty". Really unlucky (for the criminal) choice of a mark/victim.
22. Re:The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 09:47 · Score: 0
  
  Pretty much. He is the only person who has successfully bitched about phone scammers and had something done about it. Hey 1 out of 330 million people isn't so bad, right?
23. Re: The moral of the story by Tyr07 · 2019-02-12 09:48 · Score: 1
  
  Which of course they have no fucking entitlement to reach me either and need to fuck off. Got a call at 8:00 PM, they can fuck off and die.
24. Re:The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 09:52 · Score: 0
  
  So we are willing to devote lots of taxpayer funded resources to prosecuting this one guy for targeting a VIP, but doing something about the millions of scammy phone calls that little people face everyday remains a low priority.
  Yep, and this will not even come close to deterring anyone from scamming people. I've had 5 scam calls this week alone. Since Trump and his cronies have taken over and deregulated all of the important stuff in the name of "industry will regulate itself (really it doesn't and we don't care, but it's the story we sell you naive people, just keep voting for us) argument" scam/spam calls have increased by 100s per year on my phone alone, multiple that by millions....
25. Re:The moral of the story by PopeRatzo · 2019-02-12 09:52 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  But wouldn't it make more sense to give the smart criminals extra jail time?
  Yeah, you're probably right. But there should be some special penalty for stupidity, just as a general principle. And trying to run a scam on a guy that you googled but didn't notice he was a retired head of the FBI and CIA is a level of stupidity that qualifies for special treatment.
  
  --
  You are welcome on my lawn.
26. Re: The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 09:52 · Score: 0
  
  Da Comrade! We must be implementing the New Green Deal with haste, and execute any who disagree!
27. Re:The moral of the story by mukinrestak · 2019-02-12 09:59 · Score: 1
  
  Well, no. If we figure the point of prison is rehabilitation, then smart criminals, being smarter, would be more likely to learn their lesson and not recidivate.
28. Re:The moral of the story by BringsApples · 2019-02-12 10:02 · Score: 1
  
  Rich = important.
  This guy could tell you all about it.
  
  --
  Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
29. Re:The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 10:09 · Score: 0
  
  ...or you can get off scott-free from all your crimes if you are rich and powerful too (HRC, cough, cough).
30. Re: The moral of the story by JaredOfEuropa · 2019-02-12 10:12 · Score: 1
  
  To add for fairness sake: it seems the guy actually did make a verbal threat towards the victim's wife. It didn't say how credible the threat was, or if it was more like blurting something out in a heated phone call (which, at least over here, makes a big difference in sentencing or even which article of law applies)
  
  --
  If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
31. Re:The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 10:19 · Score: 0
  
  You can get justice - if you are an important person.
  Or know important people, or have money.
  If you're poor or not white, you get nothing. If mommy and daddy have money and your lawyer argues "affluenza" you get off easy.
  The US justice system is a joke, and has been for a very long time. This is just another example of it.
  The race comment is almost entirely irrelevant these days. Do you think asian, latino, or black multimillionaires and Congressmen and other powerful people are held to the same rules as anyone else? It's money and power that move the world. The fact is that in 2019 a white meth head in rural Missouri doesn't have access to any of the "privilege" of a black NFL Wide Receiver or a black sister of a Chicago Alderman.
  Thing is, this also isn't limited to "the US justice system". If you're going to tell us that the courts and bureaucracies in Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America aren't crawling with nepotism and corruption, you'll have identified yourself as grossly ignorant.
32. Re:The moral of the story by thomst · 2019-02-12 10:35 · Score: 1
  
  An Anonymous Coward opined:
  
  The director never really had potential to be a victim. However this guy won't be targeting other potential victims, it will make make some people think twice before becoming a criminal as well which has positive benefit on society for us all.
  I'm pretty sure the judge viewed, "I know everything about you. I even seen your photograph, and I seen your precious wife," as an implied threat, à la, "Nice wife you have there. Pity if anything happened to her."
  However, given Webster's career - and his reaction to this idiot's attempt to scam him - I agree that he was never in any personal danger ...
  
  --
  Check out my novel.
33. Re:The moral of the story by thomst · 2019-02-12 10:42 · Score: 1
  
  ShanghaiBill misstated:
  
  Indeed. According to the summary, the judge slapped an extra two years onto the sentence because of who the perp targeted.
  Prompting PopeRatzo to opine:
  
  I'm pretty sure that the extra two years was for being really really stupid.
  Actually, I think the extra 2 years was for what the judge (rightly, IMnsHO) viewed as an implied threat by the scammer.
  Or does, "I know everything about you. I even seen your photograph, and I seen your precious wife," strike you guys as mere innocent banter ... ?
  
  --
  Check out my novel.
34. Re:The moral of the story by Shaitan · 2019-02-12 10:49 · Score: 1
  
  Maybe there aren't enough cops and resources to stop mugging but if you try to mug the chief of police in a police station you should get busted. Think of what a laughing stock the police would be if it were otherwise.
35. Re:The moral of the story by Shaitan · 2019-02-12 10:54 · Score: 1
  
  "So the message from the FBI is "We only catch the dumb ones", which isn't much of a deterrent."
  Well the argument from law enforcement in general is that they only have to be dumb once. Or that the "bad guys have to get lucky every time, we only have to get lucky once"
  If you continue to roll the dice on bad behavior then sooner or later you are going to fuck up. You don't have to be dumb, you just have to do something dumb today. Would it be nice if the Feds has a manpower to handle all the cases this way? Sure. But that isn't realistic. If the story had been that the guy got away with it you'd be talking about how they suck so bad they can't even catch the guy who makes a clown of the highest ranking intelligence officer to ever hold office.
36. Re: The moral of the story by Shaitan · 2019-02-12 10:55 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  It's not just them. We need to stop allowing all the exceptions, debt collectors and political campaigns can fuck off too. They can send letters like everyone else.
37. Re:The moral of the story by Shaitan · 2019-02-12 10:58 · Score: 1
  
  "I agree that he was never in any personal danger ..."
  Sure but if you threaten to kill someone who turns out to be Navy seal it is still the same crime as threatening to kill the sweet old lady from 2B. Now if said seal or old lady kills you alleging they feared for their life considerations like that matter.
38. Re: The moral of the story by ShanghaiBill · 2019-02-12 10:59 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  The usual argument against stopping spoofing is that the average person won't answer the calls from a cold caller telemarketers.
  That should not be a problem. If a telemarketer with a call center in India or the Philippines wants to spoof an American number, that is fine. But they need to own both the originating number and the spoofed number, and it needs to be traceable back to them, so they can be held accountable for illegal behavior.
  But spoofing to random numbers in local prefixes, inflicting blowback on the innocent people that own those numbers, and misleading the call targets, should be illegal. It is unconscionable that we allow the telecoms to get away with this behavior.
39. Re:The moral of the story by Shaitan · 2019-02-12 11:00 · Score: 0
  
  "the undocumented"
  Lets stop with this nonsense. It is disingenuous to change the term for illegal immigrants to try to hide the fact that the definition that goes with the label is a shared criminal act.
40. Re:The moral of the story by Shaitan · 2019-02-12 11:01 · Score: 1
  
  Did you just assume his or her gender?!?!?!?! Y I K E S
41. Re:The moral of the story by Shaitan · 2019-02-12 11:03 · Score: 1
  
  Nope. The smart ones need to get out and breed whereas if we can stop the dumb ones from breeding there might be hope for the human race. Also, we don't catch the smart ones.
42. Re:The moral of the story by Shaitan · 2019-02-12 11:04 · Score: 2
  
  Smart criminals aren't criminals at all because they don't normally get caught. But if we caught one by luck (everybody has a bad day) we should turn them loose ASAP to up the odds of someone with a brain reproducing. The dumb ones we should lock away forever to make sure they don't breed.
43. Re:The moral of the story by Shaitan · 2019-02-12 11:16 · Score: 1
  
  I understand the outrage at the double standard and treatment from law enforcement. But if you call and threaten to put a bullet in the head of the former director of the CIA's wife that should illicit a response. For that matter the director or former director of any executive agency, or congressperson or president, or even state equivalents to the same.
  At some point it isn't about the person or their special status, you've just thrown down a gauntlet and challenged the power and dignity of the United States of America and all of us in it. We should be quick to laugh, forgiving and charitable to fault, and slow to anger but if despite all of that you still pick a fight with us there should be no survivors.
  The guy really should be grateful a little jail time is all he faced. If you think going through the legal system is the worst the former director of the CIA could have arranged you are kidding yourself. Hell, he was in Jamaica, the Jamaican police or any of their gangs would have happily dealt out far worse in response to an unofficial request from the CIA.
44. Re:The moral of the story by Shaitan · 2019-02-12 11:18 · Score: 0
  
  "If you're poor or not white, you get nothing."
  Or if you're poor and are white, you get nothing. Stop listening to those who want to divide us. They aren't your friends.
45. Re:The moral of the story by Shaitan · 2019-02-12 11:19 · Score: 1
  
  "Do you think asian, latino, or black multimillionaires and Congressmen and other powerful people are held to the same rules as anyone else? It's money and power that move the world. "
  Ever hear of OJ? Michael Jackson?
46. Re:The moral of the story by Shaitan · 2019-02-12 11:24 · Score: 1
  
  "Absolutely - it's all on who you know."
  Sure, and that is mostly the same with anything. If your son is special agent Johnson you can bet he'll answer the call when YOU are abused. Similarly, if you are special agent Johnson are you going to let your own mother be abused when you help other people each and every day? Does anyone really think that is unreasonable?
  In this case, it isn't someone's mother. In this case it was a former director of the FBI and CIA and the guy threatened to put a bullet in his wife's head. When an honored retiree of your organization calls you SHOULD pick up the damn phone. This guy ran our entire intelligence and federal enforcement agencies if you can threaten to kill his wife and get away with it that is a slap in the face of the United States. I'm not much of a nationalist but damn, even I've got that much national pride.
47. Re:The moral of the story by smartr · 2019-02-12 11:38 · Score: 1
  
  The low hanging fruits of justice... You're right in that most people expect law enforcement to enforce the law when crime hits them in the face.
48. Re:The moral of the story by drinkypoo · 2019-02-12 11:50 · Score: 1
  
  But wouldn't it make more sense to give the smart criminals extra jail time?
  No, you give them job training and placement, possibly in fraud prevention. If you give them extra jail time, they're going to have extra time to teach the dumber criminals things that they never would have thought of on their own.
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
49. Re: The moral of the story by smartr · 2019-02-12 11:59 · Score: 1
  
  There is such a thing as jurisprudence, and it's the job of high ranking officials in law enforcement to determine which the laws on the books get pushed. If you directly fuck with those people in a criminal way, either expect to get the book thrown at you or you might qualify for a Darwin award.
50. Re: The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 12:07 · Score: 0
  
  Did you just assume that there are only two genders?!?!?!!1 ...I typed that out as a joke and then realized that there are people who regard that as a rational position...now I'm depressed.
  (a bone for those who take offense: I think that chromosomal balance, like sexuality, is a spectrum and is a better bellweather of personality than biological sex. Not that I expect fuzzy logic to make sense to Boolian thinkers.)
51. Re:The moral of the story by thomst · 2019-02-12 14:18 · Score: 2
  
  I posited:
  
  I'm pretty sure the judge viewed, "I know everything about you. I even seen your photograph, and I seen your precious wife," as an implied threat, à la, "Nice wife you have there. Pity if anything happened to her."
  But concluded:
  
  "I agree that he was never in any personal danger ..."
  Prompting Shaitan to point out:
  
  Sure but if you threaten to kill someone who turns out to be Navy seal it is still the same crime as threatening to kill the sweet old lady from 2B. Now if said seal or old lady kills you alleging they feared for their life considerations like that matter.
  You're correct on both points. A threat is a threat, no matter who it's directed at. Responding to a threat with deadly force may or may not be treated as justifiable homicide, depending not only on the self-defense capabilities of the person being threatened, but on other circumstances, such as the credibility of the threat, the other options (short of deadly force) that were available to the target of the threat at the moment he/she acted, and - very importantly - the state of his or her mind at the time.
  But issuing a threat constitutes simple assault under American jurisprudence, regardless. And doing so while in the process of committing a felony crime against the target of that threat is an act that the presiding judge may consider deserving of an "enhancement" to the sentence for the original felony - as clearly happened in this case.
  Full disclosure: IANAL. I don't even watch any of the 57 flavors of Lawn Order. So there ... !
  
  --
  Check out my novel.
52. Re: The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 14:39 · Score: 0
  
  It's not just them. We need to stop allowing all the exceptions, debt collectors and political campaigns can fuck off too. They can send letters like everyone else.
  Ding ding ding. Now I see why the volume of calls from these precious few exceptions just keeps going up: US calls are basically free to make and receive. Letters are not. As a bonus, news makes it seem like people have a much harder discerning reality and making decisions "on the spot" when there is a live human manipulating them from thousands of miles away than when mute words on a piece of paper arrive to be picked up from your mailbox at your leisure (if they're not promptly discarded along the rest of the daily junk mail).
53. Re:The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 16:04 · Score: 0
  
  A smart parasite is still a parasite. Thanks, but I'd rather keep the number of parasites down. If you can demonstate that the tendency to parasitism won't be passed on, then I would agree with you except for the fact that what you're proposing is still a form of eugenics. You have to tread very, very carefully around eugenics. It can look good on paper, but typically goes south very, very quickly in the real world.
54. Re:The moral of the story by rtb61 · 2019-02-12 16:44 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I fully support rehabilitation over punishment but then technically, all sentences should be minimum sentences and if you have not rehabilitated and show now signs of it, you should never be let go. So prison more studio apartments because we aren't total arseholes but you never get set free.
  It is not learning your lesson, how to fake rehabilitation for early release, it is hard line full psychological evaluation to ensure very, very low rates of recidivism. In fact correctional services officers should face evaluation and possible penalty for releasing a person who latter commits a crime and certainly the government should pay for the harm caused by a citizen released who was not rehabilitated.
  I fully support a 100% rehabilitative system, with all that it implies and that correctional facilities, staffed by professional college degree correctional services officers and run by trained psychiatrists, who properly medically seek to rehabilitate their patients unstable failed citizens and not treat them like prisoners to be punished and turned into worse criminals.
  
  --
  Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
55. Re:The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 17:20 · Score: 0
  
  No you bigot, it's because he threatened to shoot his wife and him and set their house on fir.
56. Re: The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 19:51 · Score: 0
  
  But spoofing to random numbers in local prefixes, inflicting blowback on the innocent people that own those numbers, and misleading the call targets, should be illegal.
  We nerds could do our part by making it known far and wide to the non-technical people in our lives that caller id is absolutely worthless and means nothing precisely because it can be spoofed and even if it couldn't be spoofed what does some random bullshit LLC corporation name registered in the Bahamas mean to anybody? Again, nothing.
57. Re:The moral of the story by dcw3 · 2019-02-12 22:00 · Score: 1
  
  First off, I don't feel sorry for the scammer one iota. That said, I think (but IANAL) his attorney should appeal the sentence based upon the 14th amendment (Equal treatment under the law...which actually only applies to state and local but SCOTUS has upheld it's use in some federal situations). Or, possibly that's it's an unusual punishment.
  
  --
  Just another day in Paradise
58. Re: The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 22:09 · Score: 0
  
  Now you just look like a pussy with your disclaimer.
59. Re:The moral of the story by dcw3 · 2019-02-12 22:15 · Score: 1
  
  I was initially going to comment pretty much in line with yours. But then, I was wondering if children of criminals have a higher tendency to become criminals. My brief search turned up nothing.
  
  --
  Just another day in Paradise
60. Re:The moral of the story by dcw3 · 2019-02-12 22:22 · Score: 1
  
  How would you propose to get people to become correctional officers if they faced the potential penalties you proposed? If I were a released criminal that had been under you, you'd be my blackmail target.
  
  "all sentences should be minimum sentences"
  So, you'd leave judges with no leeway in sentencing criminals who had more egregious crimes? Isn't that why there's a range in sentencing guidelines? Also, what about repeat offenders?
  
  --
  Just another day in Paradise
61. Re:The moral of the story by dcw3 · 2019-02-12 22:25 · Score: 2
  
  I knew that was a scam
  https://www.gnc.com/hardcore-s...
  Oh, it is...just not the same one.
  
  --
  Just another day in Paradise
62. Re: The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 23:45 · Score: 0
  
  Corollary: justice is blind - if you have money, then they look the other way when you commit crimes.
63. Re:The moral of the story by Opportunist · 2019-02-13 01:47 · Score: 1
  
  And who's gonna run our economy?
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
64. Re:The moral of the story by stealth_finger · 2019-02-13 02:27 · Score: 1
  
  As it started with
  
  "You're a great man," the scammer cajoled. "You was a judge, you was an attorney, you was a basketball player, you were in the U.S. Navy, homeland security. I know everything about you. I even seen your photograph, and I seen your precious wife.
  I would have taken that to be complimentary designed to lower the defences of the potential victim. He's just saying he's looked into they guy obviously that would include photos and from the context he is saying the guys wife is pretty, thats it. Sure it sounds vaguely threatening out of context and written down but that doesn't make it a threat. And seeing as the guy was apparently in Jamaica where is the threat?
  
  --
  Wanna buy a shirt?
  https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
65. Re: The moral of the story by stealth_finger · 2019-02-13 02:33 · Score: 1
  
  No it doesn't. From the quotes given the scammer is quite obviously being complimentary trying to appear friendly or whatever to try and make the victim trust them more. Taken out of context sure it looks like a vague mafioso threat but this was a guy in jamaica which is probably why he said precious instead of pretty or another word. Where is the actual threat? I have seen pictures of trumps wife, I'm aware of her existence and she is pretty hot. Does that make me a threat to her?
  
  --
  Wanna buy a shirt?
  https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
66. Re:The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-13 02:38 · Score: 0
  
  "Smart criminals aren't criminals at all because they don't normally get caught"
  Ummm. You're not a criminal because you got caught.
  You're a criminal because you broke the law.
  Getting caught has nothing to do with whether or not someone is a criminal.
67. Re: The moral of the story by mjwx · 2019-02-13 02:50 · Score: 1
  
  The usual argument against stopping spoofing is that the average person won't answer the calls from a cold caller telemarketers.
  That should not be a problem. If a telemarketer with a call center in India or the Philippines wants to spoof an American number, that is fine. But they need to own both the originating number and the spoofed number, and it needs to be traceable back to them, so they can be held accountable for illegal behavior.
  That is actually an easy one to get around with modern VOIP systems and happens here in the UK. You set up a number in Birmingham that is basically a PABX connected to a VOIP back end. The back end goes back to India via a data connection (VPN or otherwise). So the number isn't spoofed, it's actually is a line connected in Birmingham... But you get connected to "Steve from London" with a very thick subcontinental accent who knows about the car accident I didn't have (common scam here in the UK, ambulance chasers looking for clients who have "whiplash").
  
  If you want to reduce spam calls, we need to punish the companies profiting from cold calling.
  
  BTW, we have a few British Indians but they'll be "Sanjay from London" and have an Estuary accent.
  
  --
  Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
68. Re:The moral of the story by Shaitan · 2019-02-13 03:14 · Score: 1
  
  By that standard everyone is a criminal.
69. Re: The moral of the story by Jason+Levine · 2019-02-13 03:42 · Score: 2
  
  What I hate the most is when they call me on my work phone. That phone is primarily used for system emergencies. When it rings, it means something big is happening and I need to hop on it right away. Too often, recently, though I've picked it up to hear. "We're calling you with an important message about your car's warranty/student loan." You can block the number, but they just call back using a different number each time.
  
  --
  My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
70. Re:The moral of the story by thomst · 2019-02-13 03:43 · Score: 1
  
  stealth_finger observed:
  
  As it started with
  
  "You're a great man," the scammer cajoled. "You was a judge, you was an attorney, you was a basketball player, you were in the U.S. Navy, homeland security. I know everything about you. I even seen your photograph, and I seen your precious wife.
  I would have taken that to be complimentary designed to lower the defences of the potential victim. He's just saying he's looked into they guy obviously that would include photos and from the context he is saying the guys wife is pretty, thats it. Sure it sounds vaguely threatening out of context and written down but that doesn't make it a threat. And seeing as the guy was apparently in Jamaica where is the threat?
  To me, it sounds a lot like an obsessed stalker, rather than a fan. Also, Webster is in his 90's, so I doubt the wannabe scammer was saying his wife was pretty. "Precious," again, comes across as vaguely threatening in the context of his call, to me. Tone of voice would make the difference as to which interpretation the judge felt was correct, of course - and it seems clear that the FBI recorded the second call, so the judge would have actually heard it, as we have not.
  Your comment that "the guy was apparently in Jamaica" leads me to suspect you're not American. If you were, you would be as familiar with - and as frustrated by - the ever-increasing barrage of scam calls from phone numbers spoofed to appear as though they originate from local exchanges that we who live here have to endure, as the FCC sits with folded hands, doing absolutely nothing to stem the deluge.
  On SS7, nobody can tell you're a Jamaican scammer ...
  
  --
  Check out my novel.
71. Re: The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-13 04:15 · Score: 0
  
  How about reading the article vs just the summary. The scammer threatened to "put a bullet" in the head of the wife. A clear threat which leads to extra time when convicted.
72. Re:The moral of the story by Shaitan · 2019-02-13 04:17 · Score: 1
  
  "If you can demonstate that the tendency to parasitism won't be passed on"
  THAT is eugenics. Eugenics is the idea that behavior is passed down. Intelligence is an inborn biological trait, suggesting it is passed to offspring is not Eugenics.
  "A smart parasite is still a parasite. Thanks, but I'd rather keep the number of parasites down."
  We aren't talking about parasites, we are talking about criminals. That is a group that includes everyone who has broken any law which essentially is everyone. Given that the only ones who don't do that are the ones who die without the opportunity to do so I'd imagine it is 'passed down' at a rate that approaches 100% with exceptions on the order of those whose mothers get hit by a bus while carrying them out of the hospital.
73. Re:The moral of the story by Shaitan · 2019-02-13 06:00 · Score: 1
  
  Agreed on all counts.
  "Responding to a threat with deadly force may or may not be treated as justifiable homicide"
  Another interesting tidbit which has been true of the many states I've lived in. Responding to a verbal threat with force but less than deadly force almost universally has the result of you being considered the guilty party.
74. Re:The moral of the story by strikethree · 2019-02-13 06:06 · Score: 1
  
  In fact correctional services officers should face evaluation and possible penalty for releasing a person who latter commits a crime and certainly the government should pay for the harm caused by a citizen released who was not rehabilitated.
  You are not entirely wrong here... but I think you are approaching this in an extremely naive manner. There are volumes of concerns and an infinite number of ways that this idea could lead to hell on earth.
  As a society, I don't think we are ready to responsibly start assigning culpability to those who deal with recidivist criminals.
  
  --
  "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
75. Re: The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-13 08:06 · Score: 0
  
  Why bother commenting without reading past the summary? He threatened to shoot her in the head. Context was pretty clear.
76. Re:The moral of the story by thomst · 2019-02-14 05:00 · Score: 1
  
  https://slashdot.org/~Shaitan noted:
  
  Another interesting tidbit which has been true of the many states I've lived in. Responding to a verbal threat with force but less than deadly force almost universally has the result of you being considered the guilty party.
  As Mr. Bumble opined in Dickens's novel Oliver Twist, "... the law is an ass."
  And in other news from the Department of Irony ...
  
  --
  Check out my novel.
Glad to hear, to bad the common person suffers by AnonyMouseCowWard · 2019-02-12 07:38 · Score: 5, Insightful

That's great news and I want to point and laugh at the scammer as much as the next guy... it's just too bad the common folk still have to suffer scammer calls (and a minority actually fall for it) with really no recourse. The FBI surely wouldn't help me if I tried to setup a sting on a scammer...
1. Re:Glad to hear, to bad the common person suffers by jythie · 2019-02-12 07:40 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Yeah, it must be nice to be the type of person with the resources and connections to actually get crimes like this investigated. This is the other end of the two tiered justice system.
2. Re:Glad to hear, to bad the common person suffers by sjames · 2019-02-12 07:53 · Score: 1
  
  So much this!
  Meanwhile, I get so many scam calls on the landline that I no longer bother answering it unless I hear a familiar voice leaving a message.
3. Re:Glad to hear, to bad the common person suffers by Berkyjay · 2019-02-12 09:17 · Score: 1
  
  The FBI surely wouldn't help me if I tried to setup a sting on a scammer...
  I mean, you don't really have any authority to do so. Frankly neither dd Mr. Webster. He just had the right connections due to his previous professions. I find it funny how a lot of people are commenting about this as some sort of elitism. Like none of us ever benefited from having connections with the right people in the right circumstance....say like knowing the bouncer at the local club.
4. Re:Glad to hear, to bad the common person suffers by sjames · 2019-02-12 10:01 · Score: 1
  
  We don't pay the bouncer out of out taxes.
5. Re:Glad to hear, to bad the common person suffers by Type44Q · 2019-02-12 10:43 · Score: 1
  
  The FBI surely wouldn't help me if I tried to setup a sting on a scammer.
  No but they might charge you with something stupid for telling them your plans. You know, just to uphold their already pathetic reputation.
6. Re:Glad to hear, to bad the common person suffers by Berkyjay · 2019-02-12 10:53 · Score: 1
  
  Your taxes aren't paying for the FBI to be your personal police force either. Only Slashdot would take a story about a criminal scammer getting caught and turn it into a grievance play about class disparity.
7. Re:Glad to hear, to bad the common person suffers by Moof123 · 2019-02-12 11:12 · Score: 1
  
  If only we had some law that guaranteed equal protection under the law. Might be nice to add that to the constitution or some such...
8. Re:Glad to hear, to bad the common person suffers by sjames · 2019-02-12 11:14 · Score: 1
  
  I think you've lost the thread here somewhere. Go read YOUR analogy again.
9. Re:Glad to hear, to bad the common person suffers by Berkyjay · 2019-02-12 12:20 · Score: 1
  
  It might not be the most fluid argument. But basically, I don't see any issues with a former director of the FBI & CIA using his connections to capture a scammer who threatened him and his family. But rather than celebrating the scum scammers ill luck in his chosen target, people here grumble how they would never get such treatment if they were the one being scammed. I find it a bit much.
10. Re:Glad to hear, to bad the common person suffers by sjames · 2019-02-12 12:53 · Score: 1
  
  I think the problem people have is that there are thousands of scammers calling hundreds of thousands of people with impunity. This includes scammers claiming to be representing the IRS and various At tourneys General and sometimes issuing threats. We'd like to see some action taken against them as well, not just the one who calls someone with clout by accident. If the big cheeses in D.C. get all the stops pulled out for them (and only them), they're unlikely to understand the plight of those who get "leave a message and someone will call you back never".
11. Re:Glad to hear, to bad the common person suffers by Berkyjay · 2019-02-12 13:46 · Score: 1
  
  OK, that's understandable. But this is a case of misdirected anger. You need to be angry at Congress and not the FBI. The FBI actually is heavily involved in pursuing scammers, a simple google search will show this. And again, I still fail to see what is wrong with a former FBI director using his connections to involve the FBI in his situation? What? Was he supposed to file a complaint through the FBI website.....while his family was being threatened....and wait for a response?
12. Re:Glad to hear, to bad the common person suffers by sjames · 2019-02-12 14:40 · Score: 1
  
  What? Was he supposed to file a complaint through the FBI website.....while his family was being threatened....and wait for a response?
  To be fair, that's what the rest of us are supposed to do.
  I personally don't blame him personally. I don't think most people here do. I think they blame the system that actually responded to that by pulling out all the stops but wants the rest of us to file a complaint through the website and wait for a response.
  I do blame Congress and the FCC as well for letting the telecomms make it so easy to spoof caller ID. It might be a lot harder to scam people claiming to be Publisher's Clearinghouse if the caller ID reads Dumnass McCheeterson.
13. Re: Glad to hear, to bad the common person suffers by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 23:50 · Score: 0
  
  You need NoMoRobo. It's free and it gets rid of tons of spam calls.
14. Re: Glad to hear, to bad the common person suffers by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-13 00:05 · Score: 1
  
  This meritocracy you're promoting is the sort of tone-deaf and sad ignorance that is prevalent in the cushy, higher-income life of a techie who tend to lack familiarity with other people's experiences. It's not misdirected anger if police:
  - repeatedly murder people who are running away from them and get away with it
  - are purposefully assassinated such as happened to the Panthers
  - are beaten nearly to death and harassed into dropping a citizen complaint as in Chicago
  Then who are you to shame, blame or gaslight people into shutting up about real harm?
  It's more important that you understand how power actually works and how the politics shape police policy, attitudes and behavior: the police aren't around to solve any individual's problems, their prime directive is to enforce laws about and rights of property owners. It goes all the way back to why the Second Amendment was created and Revolutionary War happened: for the safety of white male plantation owners to keep more slave-earned money away from King George III.
15. Re:Glad to hear, to bad the common person suffers by strikethree · 2019-02-13 06:15 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, it must be nice to be the type of person with the resources and connections to actually get crimes like this investigated.
  I see a lot of "class warfare" posts. These types of posts are not wrong, but they are not right either.
  I get the same sorts of benefits and I am certainly not anyone special. Whenever something happens around me that concerns my special skills, I get much better responses from "authorities".
  My judgement is not questioned.
  My assessment of the situation is respected.
  I get to deal directly with the person most responsible for addressing the situation.
  And yet, when I go to a doctor, if they are not accusing me of drug seeking, they dismiss all of my concerns about my health. It is disgusting to get treated that way.
  And yet if a nurse walks into a hospital, shit is totally different for that nurse than for me.
  TL;DR, The same thing would have happened had it been any well respected law enforcement agent. The exact opposite would have occurred had it been anyone else outside of law enforcement.
  
  --
  "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
Justice Works Well by nuckfuts · 2019-02-12 07:40 · Score: 1

for the those with power and influence.
sure by fluffythedestroyer · 2019-02-12 07:41 · Score: 1

when I report this I get a big fuck off and deal with it and a please sign here paper but when its webster, get the whole damn CIA on their ass... fuck off
so the moral of the story is by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 07:42 · Score: 4, Interesting

don't ever step foot onto american soil and these crimes are entirely harmless!
1. Re:so the moral of the story is by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 15:35 · Score: 0
  
  Until they send agents to your door to grab you and haul you to an airport anyways.
Comparative sentencing with manslaughter by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 07:42 · Score: 3, Interesting

Six years for attempting a phonecall scam.
Meanwhile the woman who willfully abused her boyfriend into not backing out of a suicide attempt gets 15 months
Definitive proof that our justice system values an attempt at monetary loss at nearly six times the rate of actual loss of human life.
1. Re:Comparative sentencing with manslaughter by Geoffrey.landis · 2019-02-12 07:54 · Score: 0
  
  classic whataboutism.
  
  --
  http://www.geoffreylandis.com
2. Re:Comparative sentencing with manslaughter by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 08:23 · Score: 1
  
  It's a comparison showing a value system dipshit. Leave that mcdonalds-tier intellectual gargbage on youtube.
Amazing America by Jason1729 · 2019-02-12 07:42 · Score: 5, Insightful

It truly amazes me that this is being posted as a feel-good story about how great the system works.

When hundreds of thousands of elderly are bilked out of tens of millions of dollars in the exact same scam, law enforcement just shakes its head and says it's too difficult to track down and arrest these people and everyone has to be vigilant. When this power-man with serious connections gets called by the scammer, suddenly the wheels of justice spring into motion in top gear, the next day the FBI is on it and they get the guy right away. The scammer didn't even get anything. What about grandma who lost her $200,000 life savings in a scam only to hear "that's a shame" from the police?

Then, the icing on the cake, the appropriate penalty is 33 to 41 months for the actual offence. And he gets 2 more years just because power-man is pulling the judge's string. What a corrupt system.

This whole thing reminds me of a joke. North Koreans believe they live in the greatest country in the world because the government and media lie to them. Americans know perfectly well they live in the greatest country in the world.
1. Re:Amazing America by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 07:50 · Score: 1
  
  When hundreds of thousands of elderly are bilked out of tens of millions of dollars in the exact same scam, law enforcement just shakes its head and says it's too difficult to track down and arrest these people and everyone has to be vigilant. When this power-man with serious connections gets called by the scammer, suddenly the wheels of justice spring into motion in top gear, the next day the FBI is on it and they get the guy right away. The scammer didn't even get anything. What about grandma who lost her $200,000 life savings in a scam only to hear "that's a shame" from the police?
  My dad got scammed by a fake PC repair pop-up. He didn't even know it was a scam. The FTC got his money back, but no charges against the crooks. I still have the check somewhere, because my dad had already been dead for at least three years and his estate was closed and I was no longer executor.
2. Re:Amazing America by cordovaCon83 · 2019-02-12 08:04 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  No, you don't understand.... Hard work is not how you become a member of the elite class... That's how you get shift leader at McDonald's...
3. Re:Amazing America by quonset · 2019-02-12 08:10 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  While to some extent I agree with your sentiments, the real issue is this guy and his wife went through the steps to document the crime and get the FBI involved early on. They didn't complain they were scammed months later when the criminal was long gone.
  That they just happened to be well connected is only slightly tangential.
  Of course if people wouldn't be gullible and hand over their money to anyone who calls them, this wouldn't be an issue.
4. Re:Amazing America by McGruber · 2019-02-12 08:16 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  When this power-man with serious connections gets called by the scammer, suddenly the wheels of justice spring into motion in top gear, the next day the FBI is on it and they get the guy right away.
  I understand and agree with your sentiment, but you are also factually incorrect. The article says that Thomas called Webster in 2014, but he was not arrested until 2017, 3 years later. He was then tried and convicted in October 2018, and finally sentenced in February 2019.
  
  The scammer didn't even get anything. What about grandma who lost her $200,000 life savings in a scam only to hear "that's a shame" from the police?
  Again, I understand your sentiment, but you are again factually incorrect. The article says:
  
  The FBI was able to document that Thomas, 29, from St. James Parish in the Montego Bay area, collected at least $300,000 with his scam from about three dozen victims, according to court records.
5. Re:Amazing America by enigma32 · 2019-02-12 08:18 · Score: 2
  
  In general, I agree with you here.
  But, "because power-man is pulling the judge's string"-- maybe. There _was_ an actual threat made on Webster's wife. From TFA:
  > The conversation was one of many calls that Thomas made to Webster or his wife, Lynda, in 2014, including one in which he promised a bullet “straight to the head” of Lynda.
6. Re:Amazing America by drinkypoo · 2019-02-12 08:24 · Score: 2
  
  While to some extent I agree with your sentiments, the real issue is this guy and his wife went through the steps to document the crime and get the FBI involved early on.
  Sure, but would the FBI usually be willing to be involved in something like this?
  
  Of course if people wouldn't be gullible and hand over their money to anyone who calls them, this wouldn't be an issue.
  Yeah! Piss on those victims!
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
7. Re:Amazing America by Nidi62 · 2019-02-12 08:30 · Score: 1
  
  I understand and agree with your sentiment, but you are also factually incorrect. The article says that Thomas called Webster in 2014, but he was not arrested until 2017, 3 years later. He was then tried and convicted in October 2018, and finally sentenced in February 2019.
  Webster didn't involve the FBI until Thomas started threatening his family, described his house, etc. Until then he was just blowing it off. Also, if you read the article, he was charged in 2014, but wasn't arrested until he came to the US in 2017.
  
  --
  The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
8. Re:Amazing America by WoodstockJeff · 2019-02-12 08:34 · Score: 2
  
  > gets 2 more years just because power-man is pulling the judge's string
  "I know everything about you. I even seen your photograph, and I seen your precious wife."
  That, to me, constitutes a threat against both him and his wife. The only thing missing is the old "It would REALLY be a SHAME if something were to happen to her...."
  Yes, it would be nice if all of us had the resources available to us to catch these crooks. But the 2 extra years isn't JUST because of who was sitting in the courtroom.
9. Re:Amazing America by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 08:42 · Score: 0
  
  I have an FBI office near my home. They wont respond to anything not involving federal assets or helping out the SS in the same building. It's a joke.
10. Re:Amazing America by Jason1729 · 2019-02-12 09:24 · Score: 1
  
  I don't know whether it's funny or sad that the AC believes that. For that matter, I don't know if the AC is a shill for the elite or a duped victim of them.
11. Re:Amazing America by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 10:00 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah! No kidding. I know if Iwere just a little less lazy and properly recorded and documented a scam call, I, too would have the FBI calling me back within the hour to catch the scammer! After all we have rule of law in this country!
12. Re:Amazing America by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 15:36 · Score: 0
  
  Thomas shows how capitalism can work in other ways too!- target capitalist and bilk them! - Sadly a bad model
13. Re:Amazing America by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 17:23 · Score: 0
  
  It doesn't amaze me at all of the jerk off, idiotic, bigoted posts on this site, it's what the site is.
  The story involved quite a bit more then just a nigerian scam letter if you had read it imbecile.
14. Re:Amazing America by DerekLyons · 2019-02-12 20:32 · Score: 2
  
  the real issue is this guy and his wife went through the steps to document the crime and get the FBI involved early on
  
  That they just happened to be well connected is only slightly tangential.
  o.O Are you serious? If the average Joe or Jane called the FBI, they'd reach a call center and a perfunctory report would be taken - and nothing would ever happen. (BTDT) That he's well connected (understatement of the year), isn't tangential at all. It's why he was able to have the FBI on the case the very next day.
15. Re:Amazing America by Jason+Levine · 2019-02-13 03:50 · Score: 1
  
  When my identity was stolen (credit card I didn't sign up for showed up at my door because ID thieves paid for rush delivery before changing the address), I contacted the FBI. They were uninterested because I hadn't lost enough money. The local police, meanwhile, began an investigation but weren't interested in seeing it through to the end because the ID thieves were in another jurisdiction and some other police department would get the arrest when my local police department would be putting in the investigative effort.
  In other words, an ID thief can make out just fine if they steal small enough amounts of money from people far away from them.
  
  --
  My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
16. Re:Amazing America by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-13 16:26 · Score: 0
  
  Yep. Actually surprised the scammer is still breathing.
Justice by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 07:42 · Score: 0

What about all the other victims of this scam that don't have a voice?
1. Re:Justice by DontBeAMoran · 2019-02-12 10:16 · Score: 2
  
  You just have to hope that they know sign language.
  
  --
  #DeleteFacebook
Noice. by dicobalt · 2019-02-12 07:43 · Score: 1

I love it when a plan comes together.
1. Re:Noice. by slipped_bit · 2019-02-12 09:25 · Score: 1
  
  (Lights cigar.)
2. Re:Noice. by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 10:20 · Score: 0
  
  It's spelled "nice", you retarded millennial.
Not enough... by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 07:45 · Score: 0

just add a day for every person he called (and where not an FBI and/or CIA director)...
i am conflicted by zlives · 2019-02-12 07:46 · Score: 1

between either a Homer's "D'OH" or Nelson's " Ha Ha"
this maybe a rare case where both are appropriate.
After reading this by Arkham · 2019-02-12 07:57 · Score: 1

He threatened the life of the director's wife. If I had the director's connections then this guy and everyone he ever met would just disappear off the face of the earth without a trace.

--
- Vincit qui patitur.
1. Re:After reading this by Opportunist · 2019-02-13 01:50 · Score: 1
  
  You need connections now to shoot someone in the face?
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
"Old age and treachery will always beat.... by McGruber · 2019-02-12 08:07 · Score: 1

....youth and exuberance." - David Mamet
As an old grey beard, I always enjoy seeing that saying proven true!
If a couple thousand scammers were by bobstreo · 2019-02-12 08:11 · Score: 1

given 10+ year jail terms, I would guess the total amount of scammers would decrease.
Why isn't Homeland, FBI, whatever actively hunting down these people? Shouldn't that be their job?
1. Re:If a couple thousand scammers were by Opportunist · 2019-02-13 01:51 · Score: 1
  
  The funny bit is that the scammers probably pay more tax than some "legitimate" businesses...
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
$72 million and a new Mercedes Benz by magarity · 2019-02-12 09:02 · Score: 3, Funny

What kind of bizarre prize packaging is that? If you win 72 mil, the last thing you'd care about is any particular car tossed in.
1. Re:$72 million and a new Mercedes Benz by iggymanz · 2019-02-12 09:52 · Score: 1
  
  hey I'll take that crappy car off your hands, even with capital gains tax well worth my time to resell it.
2. Re:$72 million and a new Mercedes Benz by DontBeAMoran · 2019-02-12 10:15 · Score: 2
  
  I think the car is just the container for all the money.
  
  --
  #DeleteFacebook
3. Re:$72 million and a new Mercedes Benz by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 15:39 · Score: 0
  
  He did not say it was a brand new 2019 car (as the bonus)! - The one stolen a few weeks back. stripped of many parts etc., is being given away ! :)=
4. Re:$72 million and a new Mercedes Benz by Guppy · 2019-02-12 16:41 · Score: 2
  
  What kind of bizarre prize packaging is that? If you win 72 mil, the last thing you'd care about is any particular car tossed in.
  It's probably some sort of mental trick to make the "prize" seem more concrete. Keep in mind, the ideal target of such scams is not a lucid and clear-thinking individual -- rather, it's someone who is in the process of cognitive decline.
5. Re:$72 million and a new Mercedes Benz by mjwx · 2019-02-13 02:56 · Score: 1
  
  What kind of bizarre prize packaging is that? If you win 72 mil, the last thing you'd care about is any particular car tossed in.
  I would if it were a Noble... I'd save myself £350,000.
  
  But seriously, these scams work by targeting our greed (desire for material wealth) and exploiting the naive. So adding in the car is another way to keep the victim from thinking that this is a scam.
  
  --
  Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
1 down... by Dan+East · 2019-02-12 09:27 · Score: 2

a few hundred thousand more crooks to catch.

--
Better known as 318230.
1. Re:1 down... by AnalogDiehard · 2019-02-12 12:49 · Score: 1
  
  a few hundred thousand more crooks to catch
  They can start by publishing the former director's phone number.
  
  --
  Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
English much? by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 10:13 · Score: 0

"You was a judge, you was an attorney, you was a basketball player..."
You were, you were an attorney, you were a basketball player...
Learn english, fuckwad.
Ever notice... by Shaitan · 2019-02-12 10:32 · Score: 1

Ever notice that sometimes you come across someone you just shouldn't have fucked with?
They left out the part by sunking2 · 2019-02-12 10:57 · Score: 1

Where it was when he called his kids and told them about the exciting news that they convinced him it may not be legit.
okay... by hamburger+lady · 2019-02-12 12:08 · Score: 1

72 million dollars AND a mercedes. that's like saying 'you've won $10,000 AND a big mac value meal!'

--

---
Is this the MPAA? Is this the RIAA? Is this the DMCA? I thought it was the USA!
1. Re:okay... by Opportunist · 2019-02-13 01:53 · Score: 1
  
  Maybe it's like the old "we'll go to Iraq and kill a million Iraqis and a dentist" joke.
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The real problem by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 12:40 · Score: 1

So the former head of the CIA can get something done. What about the rest of us? Law enforcement protection only for the elite
I understand u by Anonymous Coward · 2019-02-12 12:59 · Score: 0

Ok well they're still 3rd class citizens and you're still satisfied with being 2nd class as long as you have some illegal immigrants to look down on.
I get it.
1. Re:I understand u by Shaitan · 2019-02-12 20:08 · Score: 1
  
  By definition they aren't citizens at all, at least not here.
How that call went by houghi · 2019-02-12 23:08 · Score: 1

Scammer: I wantz all teh monies.
Scammee : I have a cerain set of skills ..., well not so much skills as strings that I can pull.

--
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Unintended consequences by PeterM+from+Berkeley · 2019-02-13 02:11 · Score: 1

Your proposed punitive measures toward people for the actions of OTHER people is sure to backfire.
It becomes absolutely the incentive for the the "rehabilitators" to make sure no one ever, ever leaves their care, just so they don't face consequences.
Talk about a perverse incentive.
Think it through harder, and study how possible it is to really predict someone's behavior. You might find that rather than all this psychological stuff, it's better to invest in reintegrating people effectively into society and attack poverty, drug abuse, and other causes of crime. I don't know that this is the case, I'm just suggesting it.