Legal Communication – Nicola Sarjeant
Cybercrime
Cybercrime is a term used broadly to describe activity in which
computers or networks are a tool, a target, or a place of criminal
activity.

What kinds of cybercrime can you think of?
Read the article.
What are some ways identities are stolen?
Vocabulary
to run up (a debt) – do things which cause you to owe a large amount of money
to swamp – to receive more of s.th. than you can deal with (often passive)
a spree – a short period of doing a particular, usually enjoyable, activity much more than is usual
a mole – a person who works for an organization or government and secretly gives information to its
competitor or enemy
to rack up - to accumulate something such as points or debt (inf.)
to pocket – to take s.th., often dishonestly
foreclosure - (especially of banks) to take back property that was bought with borrowed money because
the money was not being paid back as formally agreed
humiliating - making you feel ashamed or stupid
bail bond - a bond provided by an insurance company through a bail bondsman acting as agent for the
company, to secure the release from jail of an accused defendant pending trial. Usually there is a charge
of 10 percent of the amount of the bond (e.g. $100 for a $1,000 bond) and often the defendant must put
up some collateral like a mortgage on his/her house. Upon acquittal, conviction, or other conclusion of the
case, the bail bond is "exonerated" and returned to the insurance company. If the person who has been
bailed out disappears and does not appear in court, the bond funds will be forfeited unless the defendant
is found and returned.
a scam - a dishonest or illegal plan or activity, esp. one for making money
overdraft - an amount of money that a customer with a bank account is temporarily allowed to owe to the
bank, or the agreement which allows this
an impostor – a person who pretends to be someone else in order to deceive others
an informant - a person who tells esp. the police or newspaper reporters about something
Identity theft cases soaring1
By Art Golab, Staff Reporter
Chicago Sun-Times
It's happened to Oprah Winfrey, Tiger Woods and Steven Spielberg, but you don't have to be a celebrity
to have your life turned upside down by someone running up huge credit bills in your name.
It's called identity theft, and it happened to as many as 9 million people in 20062. If you live in the
Chicago area, there's an even better chance of it happening to you because the city ranks second in the
nation in the number of identity theft victims reported by the Federal Trade Commission.
"We're swamped," said Sophia Lopez, supervisor of the Consumer Fraud Division of the Cook County
state's attorney's office. "The complaints have just skyrocketed; they've doubled or tripled over the last
year."
Computers, the Internet and an economy where information is more valuable than cash have contributed
to the increase. "New technology and the ease with which you can commit this crime is making it a lot
easier for people to learn this new criminal trade," said Sgt. John Lucki, of the Financial Crimes
Investigations Unit of the Chicago Police Department.
1
2
http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/transcrime/articles/Identity%20theft%20cases%20soaring.htm
http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/idtheftsurveys.htm
Legal Communication – Nicola Sarjeant
And it's not just a matter anymore of someone finding your wallet and going on a credit spree. "Some
crime rings plant moles in organizations like hospitals or banks to gain access to thousands of personal
records," said Rolando Berrelez, assistant director of the Federal Trade Commission's Midwest Region.
Armed with this information, the rings create fake IDs, cash phony checks and rack up huge personal
loans in someone else's name. In some cases they even get mortgage loans, and posing as both buyer and
seller, pocket the whole amount of the mortgage.
"Imagine senior citizens who have paid off their home and the next thing they know they're getting a
notice that their home is being sold for foreclosure," said Lopez about a current case under investigation.
"The burden is on them to prove they didn't sell their house."
Banks and credit card companies usually take the financial hit. For them it's a cost of doing business. But
for victims it sometimes takes years and hundreds of hours of work to fix their trashed credit reports.
Kevin Weinstein
"It takes years for these credit agencies to actually locate the real Kevin Weinstein, and when they do,
more often than not they don't believe you. I've never felt so dirty in my life. It's a humiliating
experience."
But not as bad as being arrested. That almost happened to California resident Michelle Brown.
Lopez said such cases are becoming more common.
"They'll get a driver's license under somebody else's name, they'll make bond [successfully get a bail bond] and
that's the last time you see them," she said. "They're creating a criminal record in another person's name."
The Cook County state's attorney's office is seeking to add such nonfinancial identity thefts to the state's
identity theft statute, Lopez said. State and federal statutes already require businesses to keep tighter
controls on personal information.
But that didn't stop a 32-year-old New York City busboy and high school dropout from scamming
information about Winfrey, Spielberg and many other wealthy individuals from major credit bureaus.
A Sacramento man used Tiger Woods' Social Security number and got a driver's license and charged
$17,000 worth of luxury goods in the golfer's name, despite the fact he looks nothing like Woods. It
wasn't clear how the man got Woods' Social Security number, but identity thieves sometimes go diving
through trash to get the data they need.
"We encourage consumers to absolutely destroy and shred all documents containing personal information
before they throw it away," said the FTC's Berrelez.
The lesson: Guard your personal information as if it were the most precious thing you own. Now
information is the new money," Lopez said. "And it's much more accessible."
Thief stole lawyer's name, ruined credit – Ted Wern
This week, Wern got a letter from Stevens. In it, the man who pretended to be Ted Wern apologized for
what he did and said he has learned a lesson in "morality and humanity."
Does Wern believe him?
"If I was a betting man, which I kind of am, I would have believed that he would use my name again.
Why wouldn't he? It's too easy."
Legal Communication – Nicola Sarjeant
Discussion
1. What are some of the worst things identity thieves have done with
stolen identities?
2. What do you think should be the punishment for identity theft?
3. Do you use a credit card? What do you do with the credit card receipts?
4. Have you ever sold or thrown away
an old computer? Did you wipe the
hard drive before you did?
5. Do you think you “guard your
personal information as if it were the most precious thing you
own”? Why/why not?
6. Have you ever received a phishing email? Did it fool you?
7. In the United States in 2004~5, about 1.2 million people
suffered losses caused by phishing, totaling $929 million. Is
phishing a big problem in Korea?
8. What can you do to combat phishing?
9. Do you get much spam these days? Is it a problem or
annoyance, or does it not bother you?
10. Have you heard of cyber-bullying? How is it different from
traditional bullying? Do you think it’s a problem in Korea?
11. What about cyber-stalking3?
12. In the United States it is now a federal crime
to anonymously "annoy, abuse, threaten, or
harass any person" via the internet or
telecommunication system, punishable by a
fine and/or up to two years imprisonment. Do
you think this is reasonable?
13. An owner of a website, called Annoy.com,
through which users can send anonymous
annoying messages to people, challenged this
law on First Amendment grounds (freedom of
speech). Do you think people should be
allowed to send anonymous annoying
messages to people?
3
Stalking generally involves harassing or threatening behavior that an individual engages in repeatedly, such as
following a person, appearing at a person's home or place of business, making harassing phone calls, leaving written
messages or objects, or vandalizing a person's property. Most stalking laws require that the perpetrator make a
credible threat of violence against the victim; others include threats against the victim's immediate family; and still
others require only that the alleged stalker's course of conduct constitute an implied threat.
Legal Communication – Nicola Sarjeant
Kevin Weinstein
In 1994 and 1997 someone used Logan Square resident Kevin Weinstein's Social Security number to
create local and long distance telephone accounts. It took him three years to clear up the first instance, and
he's still fighting to get the second case off his credit report.
He has a letter from the long distance company stating he's not responsible, but the company still has not
changed his negative credit report. "I can't get a bank loan, overdraft protection or any of that kind of
stuff," said Weinstein, 30. "I'm always denied because of my bad credit."
He placed a fraud alert on his credit report, notifying any credit grantors to contact him personally when
giving new credit, but that didn't stop a long-distance company from giving a new account to an impostor
using his name.
And he worries that the impostor could still be at it.
Michelle Brown
Brown knew that another woman used her name and identification to set up telephone service, rent a
house, lease a $32,000 pickup truck and get $4,800 worth of liposuction.
What she didn't know was that the woman presented a faked driver's license in Brown's name when she
was arrested in Texas in 1999 for smuggling 3,000 pounds of marijuana.
The fictitious Brown became a DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration] informant, was set free and
never returned, prompting a federal warrant for Brown's arrest.
When the real Brown returned to Los Angeles from a trip to Mexico, she was interrogated for an hour by
customs agents, even though she had police reports and court records documenting the identity theft. She
was released only after a local police detective interceded.
"The agents questioned my story and documentation, and treated me very suspiciously," Brown said in
testimony before Congress last year.
Ted Wern
While Chicago attorney Ted Wern was a law student at Oxford in 1998, a man back in his home state of
Ohio got a hold of his name, Social Security number and birthdate and, using Wern's only credit card at
the time, bought a used car.
That was just the beginning. Over the next two years, the man opened a bank account and at least five
credit card accounts in Wern's name. Wern, meanwhile, got used to writing letters and making phone calls
to credit agencies and banks. Worse, Wern says, were the marks the man put on his driving record. "He
was a pretty bad driver, apparently. He ran red lights, he parked in handicapped zones," Wern, 26, said.
But in May 2000, the man got a DUI [driving under the influence of alcohol]. That turned out to be a
blessing for Wern, who was applying for the bar exam at the time. In his application, Wern had to
disclose any speeding tickets. In a visit to the motor vehicle facility, he was shocked to learn of his
supposed DUI.
He appealed to the Illinois Bar Association and the Ohio State Police. An Ohio prosecutor eventually
brought the man--Terre Andrew Stevens of Mansfield, Ohio--to court last summer.
Stevens pleaded guilty to fraud. He is expected to be sentenced in the next two weeks. How he got Wern's
information is still a mystery to Wern, who suspects he stole his mail or picked through his garbage.
Legal Communication – Nicola Sarjeant
“pharming.” In this latest version of online ID theft, a virus or malicious program is secretly planted in
your computer and hijacks your Web browser. When you type in the address of a legitimate Web site,
you’re taken to a fake copy of the site without realizing it. Any personal information you provide at the
phony site, such as your password or account number, can be stolen and fraudulently used.
In computing, phishing is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as
usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic
communication. eBay, PayPal and online banks are common targets. Phishing is typically carried out by
email or instant messaging, and often directs users to enter details at a website, although phone contact
has also been used.