Matthew Delorey’s business idea was to sell hacked Comcast modems which allow free internet access. He just forgot to avoid FBI agents, conspiracy, wire fraud and $US250,000 fines. Now he may get 20 years in prison to rethink things.
Delorey wasn’t doing anything insanely difficult. He was just modifying modems’ MAC addresses to match those of modems whose owners were old-fashioned and actually paying for internet access. He would’ve probably gotten away with selling them for a while longer had some of his buyers not been undercover FBI agents. Whoops.
The resulting conspiracy and wire fraud charges held up in federal court and a ridiculously huge fine and prison sentence were suggested. Yeah, the guy’s a criminal – a stupid one – but come on. Twenty years and $US250,000 are just a bit overboard. I hope the final sentence and fine are a bit more reasonable. [Computer World via Crunch Gear]
Pictured modem is probably not one of the hacked ones. It’s a picture by chaunceydavis818
Lem
Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 1:28 PM20 years! Bloody ell! And then you see all these convicted sex offenders get 5 years and get out in less….
Paul Preston
Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 3:38 PMhe could of sold some to terrorists, think of how they could use these modems and avoid detection.
Michael Visser
Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 9:11 PM…terrorists!? hell think bigger, imagine college students… they could cause a financial meltdown themselves with all those excessive bandwidth charges!
komprezor
Monday, February 1, 2010 at 10:58 AMHe did sell them to terrorists — the FBI.
Ever wonder why they escape detection so easily?
Get haxorware and get even.