In case you’re ever in a situation where you think hiring a hacker off Craigslist will improve things, just remember: you’re more likely to get an undercover police officer instead.
Lancaster PA native Zachary Landis had $16,000 in outstanding fines to Lancaster County in relation to a string of DUIs and assaults. So, he placed an ad on Craigslist—using his personal phone number and email address!—asking for a hacker who could wipe the record.
Naturally, a detective emailed Landis back, asking for the docket numbers of the cases he wanted wiped. Landis complied, giving the prosecutor the definition of an open-and-shut case, and getting himself felony counts of computer trespass, unlawful use of a computer, and tampering with public records.
Remember kids: if you’re going to cook up ill-advised plans to hack government computer systems, TOR and shady Dark Web sites are just a few clicks away.