Blaming Tax Fraud On A Computer Virus
from the yeah,-nice-try... dept
Now that someone found with child porn on their computer has been cleared by saying that a Trojan horse virus put it there, it appears others are trying out that sort of defense. A man who was cleared on tax evasion charges claims that his returns were screwed up because a virus made his income calculations turn out to be incorrect. I have no idea how this guy got cleared for that sort of excuse, when he couldn't actually show what the virus did. The article also quotes an anti-virus company exec who mentions that it's "curious" that this is the only person who seemed to have been infected with such a virus. Of course, now that this defense was successful, I'm sure we'll suddenly hear about plenty of others who were mysteriously "infected" with the exact same virus.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
A virus ate my homework....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
New Business
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: New Business
way to go
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: New Business
I do have to wonder why our biggest client (WorldCom, aka, MCI) has yet to use this information to their advantage though.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Cheat on my wife?
Why, I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't somehow steal my credit card number and use it to pay for hotel rooms and meals to further support this 'phony affair' it created...
I'll bet the virus author even sneaks in here late at night and puts lipstick on my collar, that dirty rotten scoundrel!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Cheat on my wife?
The virus ate my homework
The virus ordered that pizza, but I'll take it off your hands.
The virus nuked the election!
The virus was responsible for that terrorist bombing.
The virus stole my social security number and gave it to three dozen illegal aliens in the bay area!
The virus got into my head and made me kill that cop.
The virus forced me to write that virus.
And so on.
I say, this is great, and can prove a viable defense for ANYTHING.
A little anarchy is healthy.
[ link to this | view in thread ]