A scammer swindled $365,000 worth of goods out of Microsoft and is now going to prison
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Delaware man Justin David May just got hit with a quadruple combo of mail fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, and “interstate transportation of goods obtained by fraud” charges. As for how he earned those charges? It all stems from his elaborate schemes to defraud Microsoft, Lenovo, and Cisco.
The man registered false domains and created fake email addresses so he could file illegitimate warranty claims. Using these false identities and real product serial numbers, he hit up big companies to get product replacements, making defective and broken hardware claims. He then sold the goods he received on eBay and to PC part resellers.
Via this method, May and his cohorts swindled nearly $3.5 million worth of hardware out of Cisco, 193 hard drives from Lenovo (valued at $143,000), and 139 Microsoft Surface tablets (valued at $364,761).
You can read the full report over at theU.S. Department of Justice’s website(it’s a heck of a read), but to spoil the ending: May is going to prison for seven years and eight months and has been ordered to pay over $4 million in restitution, among other punishments.
The moral of the story is that there are ways to get the best Windows 10 tablets andSurface PCsthat don’t end with prison sentences — chiefly, by paying for the goods as a legitimate customer. Alternatively, if you want a personal cell and three square meals a day paid for by taxpayers, you can ask to take a look at a friend’sSurface Laptop 4serial number and get to work. Just don’t be surprised when the IRS and FBI pay you a visit.
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Robert Carnevale is the News Editor for Windows Central. He’s a big fan of Kinect (it lives on in his heart), Sonic the Hedgehog, and the legendary intersection of those two titans, Sonic Free Riders. He is the author ofCold War 2395. Have a useful tip? Send it to robert.carnevale@futurenet.com.
