2024-08-23 15:26:32
A man has been jailed for more than six years after he hacked into a government database to fake his own death to avoid child support payments.
Jesse Kipf of Kentucky, USA, was sentenced to 81 months for computer fraud and aggravated identity theft, reports the BBC.
The 39-year-old admitted to logging into Hawaii’s death registry in January of last year and creating a “file” of his own death.
Kipf then filled out a State of Hawaii Death Certificate Worksheet, designated himself as the medical examiner for the case, and certified his death using a doctor’s digital signature.
This means that he is successfully registered as dead in many government databases.
Kipf admitted he did it to avoid unpaid child support obligations of more than $100,000, bTV reported.
He was found to have offered to other cybercriminals on the dark web to sell access to the systems and to sell stolen databases containing personal information such as social security numbers.
He reportedly sold information to individuals in Algeria, Russia and Ukraine.
Damages to government and corporate computer systems and his child support obligations totaled $195,758.