Father hacks database to fake his death and avoid child support

A man has been sentenced to more than six years in prison after hacking into a government database to fake his death and evade child support payments.

Jesse Kipf from Kentucky in the USA was sentenced to 81 months in prison for computer fraud and aggravated identity theft.

The 39-year-old admitted to accessing Hawaii's death registration system in January last year and creating a “case” for his own death.

Kipf then completed a Hawaii State Death Certificate Worksheet, appointed himself as the medical certifier for the case, and certified his death using the doctor's digital signature.

This resulted in him being successfully registered as deceased in many government databases.

Kipf admitted that he had evaded his outstanding child support obligations of over $100,000.

In addition, the hacker gained access to other death registration systems and companies in independent attacks, using the stolen login credentials of real doctors and employees.

It turned out that he was offering access to the systems for sale and selling stolen databases containing private information such as social security numbers to other cybercriminals on the dark web.

The dark web is a part of the internet that is only accessible through special software that hides the identity of a browser. There are many dark web marketplaces where cybercriminals sell stolen data or access to compromised IT systems.

The court was reportedly told that Kipf had been sold to international buyers, including private individuals from Algeria, Russia and Ukraine.

“This scheme was a cynical and destructive attempt, based in part on the inexcusable goal of evading his child support obligations,” said Carlton S. Shier IV, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

Under federal law, Kipf must serve 85 percent of his sentence and will be under U.S. probation supervision for three years.

Damage to government and corporate computer systems, as well as failure to pay his child support obligations, totaled $195,758.65.