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Friday, September 18, 2009
5:24 PM TweetThis
  • A 22-year-old man has received 15 months in prison and must pay back $200,073 after trying to open more than 58,000 accounts with E-Trade (ETFC), Charles Schwab (SCHW) and Google (GOOG) in the names of characters from the King of the Hill TV show (among others). The scheme was to steal the "micro-deposits," from 1 cent to $2, that firms make to test account functionality.
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This news story has 9 comments:

  •  
    I am glad these kids are learning from the Goldman Sachs of the world

    This is like old school flash trading using rocks and scissors- I assume this guy will be offered a VP position at GS upon completion of his term. Brilliant.
    Sep 18 05:29 PM | Link | Reply
  •  
    What a great idea. He should be rewarded for trying that.

    Yeah, yeah I know its wrong.

    These days you can cheat on your taxes and say "Ooops, i didn't know" and become Treasury Secretary

    Of course when the average American does that they are thrown in jail, never to see their families again, and are forced to pay forever.

    Still waiting for this country to be taken back by the real people who own this country, only they forgot they still own it.

    compdivplan.com
    Sep 18 05:34 PM | Link | Reply
  •  
    A kid that young shouldn't be sent to jail.

    But he should be sentenced to 15 months' community service--advising other firms how not to be "scammed."

    A lesson for the kid, free technical assistance for society.
    Sep 18 05:48 PM | Link | Reply
  •  
    Another crimes that earns you less time than stealing mp3s.

    15 months for stealing $200k? Ridiculous.
    Sep 18 05:49 PM | Link | Reply
  •  
    Ha. That is very funny! 58,000 accounts! That would take a lot of time to setup the accounts, I believe. Perhaps he used a Paypal type autofill to complete the apps. And to make all those email accounts to verify?

    This guy must be a pretty good programmer.
    Sep 18 05:51 PM | Link | Reply
  •  
    Dodd, Frank and Obama enabled zero net worth individuals to open mortgage accounts that cost the taxpayers trillions and they have received zip time in jail.
    Sep 18 05:57 PM | Link | Reply
  •  
    I don't have a clue as to what you are trying to say here.Could you please expand on that?


    On Sep 18 05:57 PM RE Broker wrote:

    > Dodd, Frank and Obama enabled zero net worth individuals to open
    > mortgage accounts that cost the taxpayers trillions and they have
    > received zip time in jail.
    Sep 18 06:11 PM | Link | Reply
  •  
    Reminds me of what Richard Pryor's character did in Superman III.
    Sep 18 06:14 PM | Link | Reply
  •  
    So how did he get caught? King of the Hill didn't have 20,000 unique characters? (assuming he used the same names for Google, E-Trade etc.)
    Sep 19 01:22 AM | Link | Reply
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