Articles Posted in Theft Crimes

From the Tampa Bay Times online, a Clearwater couple were arrested on multiple charges after a video of the crime sparked a city-wide outrage…

It started with the video. The video, which shows a couple who appear to encourage a young boy to steal multiple items from an employee breakroom and a store was released to the public by the police. The police were hoping for a tip to identify the suspects and a few days ago they got one.

On Tuesday evening the Clearwater police department arrested the couple from the video. 31-year-old Julio Torres and 37-year-old Janet Soto were charged with multiple offenses including child neglect, burglary, grand theft and credit card fraud. In addition, Mr. Torres was also charged with a violation of probation.

On Tuesday police received a tip from someone who saw the video and recognized the suspects. At first glance, the evidence does not look good for the two of them. The police arrested the couple in a St. Pete bowling alley and seized their car. Inside the car police found a large amount of cash as well as numerous stolen purses and credit cards.

The suspects were with their two children, a 10-year-old boy that was seen in the video and a two-year-old daughter. Both children were placed in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.

The couple and the boy were first noticed in a surveillance video at a Ron Jon surf shop in Clearwater last Sunday. They were seen hiding stolen goods in a baby stroller. They also entered a nearby Hooters restaurant where they took purses from a back room.

As of this writing the couple are still being held in the Pinellas County jail.

LEGAL ANALYSIS

While the other crimes all seem self-explanatory, child neglect is a different issue. Child neglect is found under Florida Statute 827.03 and reads in part:

“827.03 Abuse, aggravated abuse, and neglect of a child; penalties.–

(d) A person who willfully or by culpable negligence neglects a child without causing great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement to the child commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.”

Based on the facts above and if true, the parents have committed a third-degree felony. The act of encouraging the child to commit crimes may even rise to the crime of child abuse if the court determines mental abuse or harm of the child took place.
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A guest post by another criminal defense lawyer, detailing computer crimes and steps one can do to protect themselves from theft or fraud…

Computer Crime and You: The Money Mule Epidemic

About the Author: Vincent Imhoff is a writer and Los Angeles criminal attorney who acts as a managing partner at Imhoff & Associates, P.C. He earned his law degree at Chicago-Kent College and his undergraduate degree at Lewis University. When he isn’t writing or practicing, Vincent finds time to ski on his favorite slopes and get some jogging in.

When we think of the Wild West, we think of cowboys and bandits, saloons and jailhouses, and a landscape filled with adventure and danger. The internet is not so different. The World Wide Web offers a landscape that is still largely untamed, with criminals loitering on the borders of the net, looking to scheme and scam their way to riches–much like the bandits that used to outrun sheriffs in our classic depiction of the time. One interesting parallel to be drawn is the bank heist, where the masked bandit would wave a gun around and leave with bags full of money. Even into the 21st century, bank robberies of this sort survived, though they are slowly being replaced by heists of a different kind. These heists don’t involve guns, masks, or getaway cars. Instead, they now fall under the category of computer crime, and employ the use of complex codes, swift keystrokes, and a willing participant: you.

SpyEye and Zeus

Instead of guns, hackers are committing computer crime using toolkits to send viruses out to computers all over the world with the aim of infecting the victim’s machine and stealing their credentials and banking information. The most commonly used toolkits are named SpyEye and Zeus, and they have recently become so available that authorities are having a harder time distinguishing who is carrying out these attacks. Generally hackers will secretly and remotely install these products onto your computer. They may steal from you, but generally they target large businesses, and run a program that will automatically withdraw money from their account. This is where they recruit outside help, posing as a legitimate business.

Christine Palmer

Bloomberg’s online magazine ran a story in August of 2011 (indicative of how long this has been going on) that centered on a woman named Christine Palmer, who was down on her luck and desperate for a job when she received a callback from a company called CS Office Services. What she didn’t know was that CS Office Services doesn’t exist and only served as a front for an elaborate hacking scheme that utilized the SpyEye/Zeus toolkits. Palmer’s job duties required processing online transactions, and she was able to perform them on one occasion. $98,000 was deposited into her Bank of America account in the morning on a Thursday, and she received instructions to withdraw and then transfer a large majority of it, though she was told she could keep $1,800 as a transfer fee. Bank of America caught on to what Palmer hadn’t and halted the operation, freezing her account and claiming that Palmer, though unknowingly an accomplice of the computer crime, was responsible for repaying $9,000 that she’d withdrawn and transferred overseas.

A Money Mule

In the past, the job that Christine Palmer was duped into taking would usually have been performed by an Eastern European students with a J1 visa, either knowingly or unknowingly. Some underground parts of the web even openly advertise the services of what is known as a money mule, a go between that helps to launder money for a percentage of the cut–just like Palmer did. Because of the way that laws regarding computer crime work, these money mules are held responsible for the funds that they move, being charged with crimes such as scheme to defraud. Meanwhile the original hackers generally sit back in a foreign country and let the money come in, untouchable due to anonymity and jurisdiction laws.

If it Sounds Too Good to Be True…

The good news is that many of the folks who actually are unwittingly duped are not slapped with harsh fines or charges, though their involvement in computer crime can affect credit standing and lead to criminal charges. The hiring of an experienced computer crimes defense lawyer may help ensure your punishment is minimal at best. It all depends. So how can you protect yourself from becoming a mule? The best rule to follow is: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” The internet is a wild and dangerous place at times. Protect yourself and your computer at all costs, and don’t get duped into becoming a money mule.
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A guest post by Joseph Peterson, writing about computer crimes the potential penalties…

Cyber Fraud: An Emerging Trend

Over the past few decades, the amount of information that we store in virtual databases has skyrocketed. Now, almost every aspect of a person’s life is available in some form or another in cyberspace. However, this can create the potential for others to use and exploit this information for personal gain, including impersonating others or otherwise committing fraud.

In order to combat this potential issue, legal regulations of cyber technology use have been developed throughout the country. The exact details of these regulations can vary significantly, both between different states (such as Florida) and between state and federal authorities. However, in many cases, cyber fraud is treated as a very serious crime, with penalties ranging from fines and community service to long prison sentences, depending on the nature of the crime itself.

Forms of Cyber Fraud

Cyber fraud, broadly speaking, is the use of internet technology to commit an act of fraud. This can encompass a wide variety of different acts, and in some cases, the line dividing legitimate use of the internet from fraud can be quite thin. However, a number of acts are generally recognized as being fraudulent in all or most cases. These include some of the most common forms of cyber fraud, such as:

• Use of another person’s identity to purchase goods • False or misleading online marketing • Identity theft• Health insurance fraud • Ponzi or pyramid schemes • Advance payment fraud
All of these potential criminal actions can put those who are accused of committing them in an extremely compromised legal position. For this reason, it’s important to be aware of the cyber fraud regulations and penalties in Florida.

Unfortunately, sometimes the language of the laws against cyber fraud can be so vague that it can create a potential situation in which a person may not be aware that what they are doing is against the law. Because of the serious implications that a conviction for the crime of cyber fraud may have for the rest of a person’s life, it’s important that those who have been charged with this crime speak with a qualified criminal lawyer to help defend themselves in this situation.
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