Teen Scammer Caught Again

from the looking-for-easy-money dept

Two years ago, the SEC charged a teenager with defrauding people out of over $1 million by convincing them (somehow) that by giving him their money, he would get them a guaranteed 2,500% return (yes, you read that number right). The SEC made him give back most (though, apparently not all) of the money, and went easy on him after he apologized and promised not to break the law again. However, going after easy money is apparently too big of a draw for this kid. He's still a teen, but now he's been accused of trying to defraud a bank out of nearly half a million, using a similar scam. He wanted a bank employee to give him the money, which he promised he would use to gamble online for huge profits, and then he would return the missing money to the account and everyone would profit. The bank employee, not being a sucker, turned the kid in. The kid's response on being caught is that he didn't do anything wrong, and the whole situation was set up by federal authorities to get him. Meanwhile, the SEC, who let him off so easy two years ago, is now asking a judge to reopen the case and impose fines of millions of dollars on him. Apparently, the slap on the wrist wasn't very effective.
Hide this

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


  • identicon
    Matt, 30 Jan 2004 @ 5:38am

    No Subject Given

    I want the list of people he scammed, since they may be able to help out a Nigerian friend of mine...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Oliver Wendell Jones, 30 Jan 2004 @ 7:45am

    Scorched?

    Sounds to me like he saw the movie Scorched (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286947/) and wondered if he could get away with the same thing.

    At worst he's guilty of conspiracy to commit fraud, it doesn't sound like he'd actually got around to committing any fraud - yet.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Xram.org, 1 Feb 2004 @ 2:58am

    Give Me a Royal Break..Not a Royal Flush!

    Give Me a Royal Break..Not a Royal Flush!

    This "kid" has done nothing out of the Inet Norm.

    Out of the thousands of HYIPs (High Yeild Investment Programs)
    on the internet these days
    offering 2.5% or more on your money;
    How many are scams?


    And if a bank is stupified enough to let

    this kid borrow money to gamble, (probably on HYIPs)
    More power to him.

    Should he be prosecuted for it??

    If so, then you better do the same to me
    and the other 100s of thousands of Money Randomizors

    and high risk investment programs on the internet.


    Dxhtml.com

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.