Secret Service Operative Moonlights as Identity Thief

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2007/06/secret_service

Brett Shannon Johnson is a credit-card and identity thief. In five years of
crime, the 37-year-old estimates he's stolen about $2 million -- some of it
while working as a paid informant for the U.S. Secret Service. 

Johnson, a well-known figure in the online carding community who went by the
nickname Gollumfun, worked undercover for 10 months in the agency's
Columbia, South Carolina, office helping catch other card thieves. Then last
year agents discovered his two-timing, and he went on the lam. 

"It was $350 a week (from the Secret Service) vs. $5,000 or $6,000 a week"
from his fraudulent tax-refund scam, Johnson told Wired News by phone, prior
to his sentencing on charges of aggravated identity theft and other crimes.
A federal judge last week ordered him to serve six years and three months in
prison, and to pay more than $300,000 in restitution. 

The case sheds light on some of the risks and ethical trade-offs involved in
using criminals as informants. 

...


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