eCrimeBytes.com

eCrimeBytes.com

By Keith JonesNewsTechnologyTrue CrimeTech News
Download on the App Store

eCrimeBytes.com episodes

  • eCrimeBytes Nibble #21: How To Compete Like A Boss: A CEO’s Guide To Email Hacking, Impersonation, And Customer Insults
    The land of corn, cows, and... computer crimes? Yes, it seems that even in this idyllic Midwestern state, technology can get people in trouble. Just ask Jonathan Manzi, the former CEO of Ink Labs, a tech company that used to call Lincoln home, until its CEO decided to hack a former employee's email and a competitor's customer list. Because, you know, that's how you keep your company alive, by committing cyber crimes.
     

    Manzi's lawyer tried to defend his actions by comparing them to someone who burglarizes a home to get back his wife's stolen wedding ring. Right, because hacking a former employee's Google email account and Dropbox account, then impersonating him to gain control over his phone and access his new employer's Dropbox account, and finally sending disparaging, anonymous emails to its customers and potential customers, is totally the same as getting back a piece of jewelry.

    And let's get one more thing straight: breaking into someone's home is illegal and should never be used to diminish hacking, which is also illegal.

    Manzi himself, now the CEO of Beyond Protocol, another tech company, offered a tearful apology in court and said he regretted the sense of violation he caused. He also said he viewed the people he worked with as family, which explains why he hacked their emails and jeopardized their careers. He even tried to justify his actions by saying he was trying to save Ink Labs from failing, as if cyber crime was a viable business strategy.

    Let's hope Manzi learned his lesson, and that Lincoln can go back to being known for its corn and cows, not its cyber criminals.
     
    More Reading: https://drkeithjones.com/index.php/2023/05/05/how-to-compete-like-a-boss-a-ceos-guide-to-email-hacking-impersonation-and-customer-insults-ecrimebytes-nibble-21/ 

    #ecrimebytes #truecrime #podcast #hacking #ceo #humor #funny #comedy
    4 min
  • eCrimeBytes S 1, Ep 11, Pt 2: The Mann Behind The Curtain: How Michael Mann’s Ponzi Scheme Crashed And Burned

    This is part 2!  You will want to listen to part 1 first!

    How much would it take for you to lose your job, and your career, if you helped your friends make millions defrauding financial companies?  Did you say $11,300 in Amazon gift cards?  No?  Well that's what one criminal settled for from his "friends" in this scheme!

    This week we look at a group of fraudsters that netted millions in loans between 2013 and 2019 using nothing more than fake paperwork and a handful of shell companies.  How were they able to go unnoticed for 3 years?  Why was a payroll company not able to pay 1000’s of their clients’ employees? We will look into these questions and more in this week’s episode #11 of eCrimeBytes.

    Photo Credit: Will Waldron / Times Union

    The crime ring:

    If you cannot see the images in your podcasting app, you can view them here:

    https://ecrimebytes.podbean.com/e/ecrimebytes-s-1-ep-11-pt-1-the-mann-behind-the-curtain-how-michael-mann-s-ponzi-scheme-crashed-and-burned

    Sources:

    • https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/09/mypayrollhr-ceo-arrested-admits-to-70m-fraud/ 
  • https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16240561/cachet-financial-services-v-mypayrollhr/ 
  • https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16415208/parties/southwest-payroll-service-inc-v-pioneer-bancorp-inc/ 
  • https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fbi-agents-raid-home-ceo-connected-payroll-processing-fraud-n1055591 
  • https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16241232/united-states-v-mann/ 
  • https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17436704/united-states-v-mann/ (More info)
  • https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndny/pr/minnesota-man-pleads-guilty-conspiring-michael-mann-defraud-financing-companies 
  • https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndny/pr/michael-mann-charged-bank-fraud 
  • https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndny/pr/valuewise-ceo-michael-mann-sentenced-144-months-prison-100-million-fraud 
  • https://dailygazette.com/2021/08/20/third-person-indicted-in-connection-with-manns-payroll-scheme/ 
  • https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16808173/united-states-v-steiner/ 
  • https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/60330998/united-states-v-schwartz/
  • https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Michael-Mann-sentenced-to-12-years-in-prison-in-16363029.php
    • 43 min
  • eCrimeBytes Nibble #19: Deepfake It Till You Make It: Man With Fragile Ego Sentenced For Deepfaking Sexual Images Of Underaged Girls
    This case demonstrates that it is difficult to protect yourself from someone with time, no morals, and criminal creativity on their side. You could have posted nothing but G rated face only pictures and someone like Patrick Carey can still find a way to exploit you.
     

    Patrick Carey used public G rated pictures of at least 14 underaged victims from a local high school to create fake pornography through deepfake technology. If you don't know what deepfake technology is, don't worry. Just think of it in this case as having a very convincing realistic pornographic rendition of someone's G rated pic, generated through computer applications.

    Carey then went one step further than just posting these deepfake porn files. Carey doxxed his victims' by adding their contact information to the deepfake pornography he created. This would open Carey's victims up to additional forms of mental and physical abuse.

    Facing what reads as a lot of evidence, Carey plead guilty and was sentenced. Carey's sentence was 6 months incarceration with 10 years probation. His sentence includes significant sex offender restrictions. Hopefully Carey's deepfake material will disappear from the internet before he is finished with his probation in a decade, but given the internet has a long memory it looks unlikely.
     
    More Reading: https://drkeithjones.com/index.php/2023/05/02/deepfake-it-till-you-make-it-man-with-fragile-ego-sentenced-for-deepfaking-sexual-images-of-underaged-girls-ecrimebytes-nibble-19/

    #ecrimebytes #truecrime #podcast #deepfake #pornography #porn #humor #funny #comedy
    4 min
  • eCrimeBytes Nibble #18: Officer Jones Takes His Work Home (Literally)
    Move over, Ocean's Eleven.
     

    Officer Jones (no relation) allegedly stole his internal affairs file and computer towers from his police department. He hid some of the computer at his and his in-laws' houses.

    It takes some serious guts to steal from the police department, and even more guts to stash the stolen goods in your own home and your in-laws' place. I can only imagine the awkward family dinners when the topic of the stolen police files come up.

    But hey, who can blame Officer Jones for wanting to keep his personnel and internal affairs files close to home? After all, you never know when you might need to refresh your memory on those pesky disciplinary actions about yourself.

    And let's be real, those computer towers are just taking up valuable office space. It's better to put them to good use in your own GTA-themed gaming setup instead!

    More Info: https://drkeithjones.com/index.php/2023/03/13/breaking-news-officer-jones-takes-his-work-home-literally-ecrimebytes-nibble-18/

    #ecrimebytes #truecrime #podcast #lawenforcement #humor #funny #comedy
    3 min
  • eCrimeBytes Nibble #17: The Siren Call Of Debt And Facebook Messenger
    Looks like Officer Riggs, a Maryland State Trooper, just couldn't resist the siren call of a hefty debt and a juicy secret. But hey, who needs to worry about pesky things like ethics when you've got Facebook Messenger to do all the talking for you?
     

    Officer Riggs provided law enforcement only information to a drug suspect for approximately $1,800 cash. The officer's payment was left behind a dumpster at a Red Roof Inn in Hagerstown, MD:

    https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.527890/gov.uscourts.mdd.527890.7.0_1.pdf

    Facebook Messenger was the communication method of choice in this case. Because when you're trying to be sneaky, nothing screams 'under the radar' quite like using a social media platform.

    More Reading: https://drkeithjones.com/index.php/2023/03/13/maryland-state-trooper-falls-to-the-siren-call-of-debt-and-facebook-messenger-ecrimebytes-nibble-17/

    #ecrimebytes #truecrime #podcast #lawenforcement #humor #funny #comedy
    4 min
  • eCrimeBytes Nibble #16: Pompompurin And BreachForums
    Forget the usual suspects. It's always the ones with cute and innocent-sounding usernames that you have to watch out for. Lesson learned, Pompompurin.

    But you know what they say, never judge a cybercriminal by their username.

    "Pompompurin", boss of "BreachForums", was arrested by the FBI. This case has been all over the news lately and will probably turn into a full eCrimeBytes episode after it winds its way through the court system.

    BreachForums was a well known meeting spot for the underground to sell and purchased hacked databases. It was reportedly a new version of RaidForums, which was disabled by the FBI in 2022.

    Authorities were reportedly tipped off to Pompompurin's identity by his excessive use of the phrase 'such a good boy' in his forum posts. It seems even cybercriminals can't resist the allure of praising man's best friend.

    But here's the kicker: Pompompurin didn't even try to deny his involvement in the whole mess. He gave the FBI his real name, Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, and admitted to being the owner and administrator of BreachForums.

    What was also interesting was that Fitzpatrick had a long history of causing issues for the FBI. From SPAM blasting a fake email about a fake investigation from official FBI email addresses to housing partner data exfiltrated from the breached FBI InfraGard program, this wasn't the first time Fitzpatrick and the FBI have crossed paths.

    He's like a cybercriminal's version of a recurring villain. Will he ever learn his lesson? I doubt it.

    Pompompurin's BreachForums may be shut down, but I'm sure he's already working on his next big cybercrime scheme. Maybe next time he'll use a more intimidating name.

    Remember: always watch out for those cute and innocent-sounding usernames. They might just be the ones causing all the trouble.

    More Reading: https://drkeithjones.com/index.php/2023/04/27/pompompurin-the-good-boy-gone-bad-for-running-breachforums-ecrimebytes-nibble-16/

    #ecrimebytes #truecrime #podcast #pompompurin #breachforums #humor #funny #comedy
    4 min
  • eCrimeBytes S 1, Ep 11, Pt 1: The Mann Behind The Curtain: How Michael Mann’s Ponzi Scheme Crashed And Burned

    How much would it take for you to lose your job, and your career, if you helped your friends make millions defrauding financial companies?  Did you say $11,300 in Amazon gift cards?  No?  Well that's what one criminal settled for from his "friends" in this scheme!

    This week we look at a group of fraudsters that netted millions in loans between 2013 and 2019 using nothing more than fake paperwork and a handful of shell companies.  How were they able to go unnoticed for 3 years?  Why was a payroll company not able to pay 1000’s of their clients’ employees? We will look into these questions and more in this week’s episode #11 of eCrimeBytes.

    Photo Credit: Will Waldron / Times Union

    The crime ring:

    If you cannot see the images in your podcasting app, you can view them here:

    https://ecrimebytes.podbean.com/e/ecrimebytes-s-1-ep-11-pt-1-the-mann-behind-the-curtain-how-michael-mann-s-ponzi-scheme-crashed-and-burned

    Sources:

    • https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/09/mypayrollhr-ceo-arrested-admits-to-70m-fraud/ 
  • https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16240561/cachet-financial-services-v-mypayrollhr/ 
  • https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16415208/parties/southwest-payroll-service-inc-v-pioneer-bancorp-inc/ 
  • https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fbi-agents-raid-home-ceo-connected-payroll-processing-fraud-n1055591 
  • https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16241232/united-states-v-mann/ 
  • https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17436704/united-states-v-mann/ (More info)
  • https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndny/pr/minnesota-man-pleads-guilty-conspiring-michael-mann-defraud-financing-companies 
  • https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndny/pr/michael-mann-charged-bank-fraud 
  • https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndny/pr/valuewise-ceo-michael-mann-sentenced-144-months-prison-100-million-fraud 
  • https://dailygazette.com/2021/08/20/third-person-indicted-in-connection-with-manns-payroll-scheme/ 
  • https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/16808173/united-states-v-steiner/ 
  • https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/60330998/united-states-v-schwartz/
  • https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Michael-Mann-sentenced-to-12-years-in-prison-in-16363029.php

    • Chapters:

    0:00 Intro
    6:01 Music
    7:10 Threesomes And Hitmen! Updates
    12:51 Meet Michael T. Mann
    15:09 How This Crime Worked
    27:32 How Much Was Their Haul?
    50:40 Identity Theft Too?
    55:53 Steiner's Real Haul
    59:24 Conclusion?

     

    1 hr 1 min
  • eCrimeBytes Nibble #15: Crypto Cash for Classified Cache
    Well, well, well, looks like Jareh Sebastian Dalke wanted to play James Bond and sell classified information to a foreign government. From June 6, 2022, to July 1, 2022, he was an Information Systems Security Designer at the NSA, but apparently, that wasn't exciting enough for him.

    With a thirst for adventure and a mountain of debt, Dalke decided to dip his toes into the high-stakes world of espionage. He stole classified documents like a boss, and then asked a "foreign nation" (wink, wink) to deposit some sweet cryptocurrency into his wallet for the goods. What could go wrong, right? Well, turns out it was actually his friendly neighborhood FBI office who deposited the funds.

    According to the articles in the links listed at the end of this post, Dalke also tried to reach a Russian government website on the Tor network.

    More information:

    https://drkeithjones.com/index.php/2023/04/25/crypto-cash-for-classified-cache-ecrimebytes-nibble-15/

    Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-GWNw5rvGgjjV0OaOqcdfQ?sub_confirmation=1

    #ecrimebytes #truecrime #podcast #nsa #classified #humor #funny #comedy
    3 min

About eCrimeBytes.com

From the publisher's feed

Researching the court documentation and roasting the criminals, so you don’t have to!