A man has been sentenced to more than six years in prison after hacking into a state database to fake his death, and get out of paying child support.
Jesse Kipf from Kentucky, in the US, was sentenced to 81 months for computer fraud and aggravated identity theft.
The 39-year-old admitted to accessing the Hawaii Death Registry System in January last year and creating a “case” for his own death.
Kipf then completed a State of Hawaii Death Certificate Worksheet, assigned himself as the medical certifier for the case and certified his death, using the digital signature of the doctor.
Kipf admitted that he did it to avoid his outstanding child support obligations of more than $100,000.
There are many darknet marketplaces where cyber criminals sell stolen data or access to compromised IT systems.
“This scheme was a cynical and destructive effort, based in part on the inexcusable goal of avoiding his child support obligations,” said Carlton S. Shier, IV, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
The damage to governmental and corporate computer systems and his failure to pay his child support obligations amounted to a total of $195,758.65.
After breaking into a government database to pretend to be dead and avoid paying child support, a man was sentenced to more than six years in prison.
Jesse Kipf, a US citizen from Kentucky, was given an 81-month prison term for aggravated identity theft and computer fraud.
The 39-year-old acknowledged that he had created a “case” for his own death in January of last year by gaining access to the Hawaii Death Registry System.
After that, Kipf filled out a State of Hawaii Death Certificate Worksheet, designated himself as the case’s medical certifier, and used the doctor’s digital signature to certify his death.
It meant that numerous government databases had successfully registered him as deceased.
As he acknowledged, Kipf took this action to get out from under his over $100,000 in unpaid child support obligations.
Using the stolen login credentials of actual doctors and employees, the hacker also gained access to other death registry systems and businesses in unrelated attacks.
It was discovered that he was making offers to other cybercriminals on the darknet to sell access to the systems and databases that had been stolen and contained sensitive data, including Social Security numbers.
A section of the internet that can only be accessed with specialized software that conceals the identity of a browser is known as the “darknet.”. Cybercriminals sell access to compromised IT systems or stolen data on a number of darknet marketplaces.
The court was reportedly informed that Kipf was sold to foreign buyers, including people from Algeria, Russia, and Ukraine.
The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, Carlton S. Shier, IV, stated that “this scheme was a cynical and destructive effort, based in part on the inexcusable goal of avoiding his child support obligations.”.
Kipf will be supervised by the United States and required to serve 85 percent of his prison sentence under federal law. s. three years at the Probation Office.
A total of $195,758.65 was lost due to his failure to pay child support obligations and the harm he caused to corporate and governmental computer systems.
