Leon Walker of Rochester Hills, Michigan, has come face-to-face with BIG government. Seriously, you cannot get much bigger than charging a husband for reading email on a computer he shares with his wife.

Evidently his wife has a friend in Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper. She described Walker as a skilled hacker. He is employed by Oakland County as a computer technician.

Just last night Aunt Brice told me she’d been logging into one of my Facebook accounts to "see what I was saying." Honey, your admission, freely given as you tickled your palate with some of Napa Valley’s finest, could put you in jail if we lived near Detroit. You see, Detroit doesn’t have much crime and prosecutors up there go out looking for criminals like you.

Of course there is more to the story – much, much more. You can continue reading below the ads, but be sure and come back to the ads so find out about other stuff or to buy something because these good folks help pay my bills.

Her Cheating Heart

Clara Walker, the aggrieved party according to the prosecutor who is now divorced from Leon, has three divorces on her resumè. Her email revealed that Clara was having an affair with her second husband, a man who had been arrested for beating her in front of her son from husband number one.

Leon, worried about further domestic violence from the man who was in flagrante delicto (fancy legal term commonly used to describe being caught in the act of having sexual intercourse), turned the email over to husband Number One who then filed for custody of the child.

Kudos to the Detroit Free Press

The Detroit Free Press broke this story on December 26, interviewing all parties involved except Clara Walker who, according to her attorney Michael McCulloch, declined the interview. L. L. Brasier is the staff writer at DFP. Click the link to read the entire article,
Is reading wife’s e-mail a crime? Rochester Hills man faces trial.

Brasier brings up another point at the close of his article. Attorney Deborah McKelvy asks, "What’s the difference between that and parents who get on their kids’ Facebook accounts?"

Prosecutor Cooper says Leon used his wonderful skills because of his high training to hack into his wife’s password-protected email account. Leon says his wife kept all of her passwords in a book beside the computer. Now I’ll admit that reading is a wonderful skill. Clara also says that in spite of the fact that Leon bought and used the laptop, it was hers alone.

Note: According to neighborhoodscout.com, crime in Detroit registers 525 crimes per square mile; the national average is 49.6.

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

Phishing ain’t fishing. Fishing is big business in Arkansas what with all the bass and trout honey holes in the state. And it’s just simply impossible to resist a plate full of golden fried crappie or bream (pronounced brim and also known as perch).

Phishing, on the other side of a shiny coin, is what thieves and folks with no moral values do to unsuspecting wonderful people like you who fail to learn from history and, thus, remain quite stupid. However, I do realize that some folks have just emerged from their caves and haven’t heard of this stuff which puts them in the Ignorant category; they are not stupid, yet.

Phishing counts on people being greedy and wantin something for nothin. And that’s probably why it’s most related to financial type stuff ’cause there ain’t nobody greedier than a banker or Wall Street person. And I thought long and hard about that statement because of the oil companies, corporations and Republicans. Now, I readily admit that a whole slew of Democrats have sold us down the river recently (think Health Care Reform) and I’m on the brink of throwing Barack Obama into that group.

Beware of Greedy Phishermen

A phisherman (used generically because there are probably some criminal-type women involved as well) ranks right down there with the aforementioned scum of the earth. Here’s a recent example dated May 17, 2009 and the email subject line is "# Hi, We Recruiting Officer (Human Resource Dept.) #" Now, the subject line itself ought to give you reason for pause. This email was written by a fellow named William Crawford who lists an email address of william2281@gmail.com. Here’s what he says.

We at Market World are a world class textile firm located in the United Kingdom and seek payment Personnel of our direct payments from customers in the United States. Below is the information about the Job.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO FOR US?

The international money transfer tax for corporate entities (companies) is 19%, whereas for the individual it is only 4%. For this reason, We are recruiting and deploying agents to receive payments for our textiles (in money orders, cheques or bank transfers) on our behalf and then forward the money to us via Money Gram or Western Union Money Transfer. There will be profit maximization by operating in this manner.

There’s a lot more to the email like you getting a 10% commission and how the "job" requires no education, no going to an office and how you can earn a promotion. (continued below)

Stupid is as Stupid Does

Yes, phishing schemes count on you being stupid. And they work because the world is filled with stupid people; they’re not all in Washington, D.C. You see, here’s how it works. You receive a payment from "somebody" for "some reason." You must move fast in order to be promoted. You deposit the payment into your bank account. You then withdraw 90% of what you deposited, run down to the Western Union store and send it as fast as you can to the Market Health folks.

A day or two later, the money you deposited bounces because of insufficient funds. To make matters worse than they already are, your bank will probably charge you a hefty fee for depositing an insufficient check. Yes, you will feel stupid for falling hook, line and sinker for this scam. That’s a natural reaction to being stupid and doing stupid things. You are not alone. Read what others are saying.

Beware of MobileMe phishing scam – Several TUAW readers have contacted us about a MobileMe phishing scam. These readers are getting an email that looks surprisingly official (see below). When they click on the Log In button, they’re going to a page that has already been …

Another Facebook Phishing Scam Gets users Passwords – Where Geeks go to relax Spotlighting Technology, Fun, Gadgets, Games – GeeG.

Online Safety Advice: How to Recognize Phishing Emails? : MyOrbit Live – Beware of phishing email scams, which typically come as emails that claim that they are from a company that you most likely do business with, such as your Bank, PayPal or eBay. They will tell you that you need to go to the site, …

The best, however, must be this one:

Banks Blacklist Phishing Victim – A man in England who was victimized by a phishing scam found himself being blamed for it by his bank. 19-year-old Billy Brown got a phishing email claiming to be from the bank, and a few days later a check for a little over 8,000 pounds-roughly $11,000-was deposited into his account, and later a withdrawal for the same amount was made. Not surprisingly the check bounced, leaving Brown’s account overdrawn. What is surprising is that the bank immediately closed his account and blacklisted his credit rating because it insists Brown knowingly gave his bank info to the scammers, inferring that Brown himself may be one. Because of their actions not one bank in the UK will give him an account.