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Crime Social Networks Idle

The Incredibly Stupid Plot To Hijack a Domain By Breaking Into Its Owner's House With A Gun (cnn.com) 294

CNN tells the story of 24-year-old "social media influencer" Rossi Lorathio Adams II who'd wanted his domain to be the slogan of his social media sites (which at one point had over a million followers on Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter). Unfortunately, that domain was already owned by another man in Iowa -- but Adams came up with a solution: In June 2017, Adams enlisted his cousin to break into the domain owner's home and force him to transfer it. The cousin drove to the domain owner's house and provided a demand note [which contained "a series of directions on how to change an Internet domain name from the domain owner's GoDaddy account to one of Adams' GoDaddy accounts."] After entering the home, the intruder grabbed the victim's arm and ordered him to connect his computer to the internet. He put the firearm against the victim's head and ordered him to follow the instructions.

"Fearing for his life, the victim quickly turned to move the gun away from his head. The victim then managed to gain control of the gun," court records show. The victim shot the intruder multiple times and called the police. The intruder, Adams' cousin Sherman Hopkins Jr., was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year. Now it's Adams' turn. He will remain in custody pending sentencing. He faces a maximum 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

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The Incredibly Stupid Plot To Hijack a Domain By Breaking Into Its Owner's House With A Gun

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  • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 21, 2019 @10:42PM (#58469588)

    Pretty much sums up what is wrong with narcissistic social media culture.

    • Google "selfie deaths". The nice thing is they're taking themselves out!
  • Armed Robbery? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rtb61 ( 674572 ) on Sunday April 21, 2019 @10:50PM (#58469618) Homepage

    C'mon, seriously, no one expects that kind of transaction to go unreported and the domain name returned and the criminals arrested. The only way they thought they could get away with it, was by killing the victim, no criminal could be stupid enough not to do that. The charge should have been attempted murder, that was the intent, get the transfer done and silence the witness. That guy saved his own life that day and make no mistake.

    • by Kejiro ( 2803123 )
      Yeah, it's not like it hasn't happened before, which might be where they got the inspiration since it was even made a film about it: Pain & Gain [wikipedia.org]
    • I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse.. Unless Luca Barsi can't hold his gun right. Then he can refuse, and shot Luca multiple times.

    • Re:Armed Robbery? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Monday April 22, 2019 @12:54AM (#58469894)

      C'mon, seriously, no one expects that kind of transaction to go unreported and the domain name returned and the criminals arrested. The only way they thought they could get away with it, was by killing the victim, no criminal could be stupid enough not to do that. The charge should have been attempted murder, that was the intent, get the transfer done and silence the witness. That guy saved his own life that day and make no mistake.

      So the victim transfers the domain the night he gets murdered? Yeah, that's not suspicious at all.

      Probably the plan was that the victim would be so scared that he just let the whole thing go rather than risk the nutjob with a gun coming back. Which probably won't work... but there's a chance.

      Barring that you just let him report then when the cops come around go "gun-point? I withdrew $5k and paid him in cash!" Which again lands you in jail... but maybe you get away with it.

      Either way it was a really stupid plan, but killing the victim would have made it stupider.

      • Re:Armed Robbery? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Zontar_Thing_From_Ve ( 949321 ) on Monday April 22, 2019 @07:25AM (#58470648)

        So the victim transfers the domain the night he gets murdered? Yeah, that's not suspicious at all.

        What exactly are the odds that the transfer would even get to the attention of the police? I grew up in a relatively small town and I can tell you that small town cops are a lot closer to Sheriff Andy Taylor and Deputy Barney Fife (look up The Andy Griffith Show if you don't get the reference) than the crime solvers on NCIS. I own 3 domains, none of them are valuable and I barely use them. If somebody put a gun to my head, made me transfer them, killed me and took my computer, the cops would be looking for fingerprints and other evidence but they probably wouldn't be calling Go Daddy to see who got my domain. I read the article and I have reason to suspect that the guy with the gun was indeed going to kill the victim after the transfer happened. If it had gone down like I mentioned - do the transfer, kill the victim, steal the computer the victim used - the cops would probably be treating it like a robbery gone bad or some personal revenge thing, but they might not have ever looked at the guy who wanted the domain.

        • I live in a relatively small town as well, and this lines up with what I expect would happen. Who's going to go digging to check the victim domain transfers? Maybe they'd check bank account history, but that wouldn't show up there.
          • by kenh ( 9056 )

            Maybe they'd check bank account history, but that wouldn't show up there.

            They'd show payments to a registrar, a casual scan of the victims computer would likely turn up emails and texts from the "influencer" attmpting to buy the now transferred domain name, the victim likely mentioned the "crazy guy that wants to buy my domain" to afriends and family, at least in passing, before being murdered...

            Police don't have to look real hard to find sloppy criminals, and anyone who's plan is drive to their house, force them to transfer the domain, and kill them probably qualifies as a "slo

      • >So the victim transfers the domain the night he gets murdered? Yeah, that's not suspicious at all.

        You assume the cops would even look into that aspect. How often are the domain transfers checked as part of the forensics?
        • by kenh ( 9056 )

          a casual scan of the victims computer would likely turn up emails and texts from the "influencer" attempting to buy the now transferred domain name, the victim likely mentioned the "crazy guy that wants to buy my domain" to a friends and family, at least in passing, before being murdered... this guy is sloppy, his crime wouldn't go unnoticed.

    • by mwvdlee ( 775178 )

      Also; a guy getting shot and at the same date and time of the murder a contested domain being "peacefully" transferred without a money transaction.
      I'm guessing the cops would have a primary suspect at the very least.

    • The charge should have been attempted murder, that was the intent

      You are applying logical thought where there is none. An "influencer" just tried to rob someone of internet domain name at gunpoint. Let that sink in for a moment, and then re-evaluate the high bar you set for a base level of stupidity.

      • by mysidia ( 191772 )

        The "influencer" probably doesn't realize that illegal domain transfers can be undone by the registrar, and forcing someone to take actions within their online account under duress results in such a reversible transfer.

  • Why the fixed fines? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by RyanFenton ( 230700 ) on Sunday April 21, 2019 @10:53PM (#58469626)

    Whenever I see rulings like this, I'm somewhat struck by the odd "and a multiple of $25,xxx fine". Shouldn't it be something like "50% their assets, foreign and domestic".

    At the very sound of that, some of you might be tightening various muscles. Yes, that is appropriate. That's because you may be in a condition where you don't find a commonly 'huge' fine to be the same thing as significantly meaningful threat of loss.

    All punishments, to be perceived as actual punishments should be formatted to be just as painful to the biggest corporation, as to the poorest person. And if the poorest folks aren't allowed to use bankruptcy to escape such material punishment, neither should shareholder either - dept should be assignable through shares to bring actual meaning to harm caused by companies.

    Just an idea.

    Ryan Fenton

    • by skegg ( 666571 )

      It's worse than that ... the quoted fines / prison terms are the maximum allowable. They can be far less than that.

      I think Sweden (?) has traffic fines that are a percentage of one's income.
      (Post Google search ...) Swedish motorist facing world's biggest speeding fine [telegraph.co.uk]

      Ouch.

      • by Kejiro ( 2803123 ) on Sunday April 21, 2019 @11:27PM (#58469718)

        No, Sweden has "dagsbot" which is based on the degree on the crime, and the perpetrators income, but it's not for minor traffic violations like speeding.
        Finland on the other hand has that. https://www.theatlantic.com/bu... [theatlantic.com]

        The concept is quite a fair one though since it doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, the fine will be noticeable anyway.

        • Reminds me of a joke that works best in the Americas:

          Q: What's the hardest part of getting a speeding ticket as a rich man?

          A: Keeping a straight face as the officer sternly serves you a fine for a scrap of pocket change!

    • by jaa101 ( 627731 )

      Shouldn't it be something like "50% their assets, foreign and domestic

      That's communist thinking. Surely no US jurisdiction has this for crimes, only divorce.

    • by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Monday April 22, 2019 @02:33AM (#58470068)

      Whenever I see rulings like this, I'm somewhat struck by the odd "and a multiple of $25,xxx fine". Shouldn't it be something like "50% their assets, foreign and domestic".

      Oh that'll work beautifully. I manage a commercial building. One of our tenants (whom we later learned was what I now call a "professional squatter") stopped paying rent. We began eviction proceedings. The process normally takes about 3-6 months, but he'd file requests for extensions at the last minute and managed to drag it out for a year. After a year, the judge finally ruled in our favor, and we evicted him (get a piece of paper from the court that you can give to the police, who will then escort you into the unit so you can change the locks and clean it up to re-rent it). We also filed a lawsuit against him to collect back-rent, but our lawyer figured out that during the year he'd been busy transferring all his assets to his wife, then he filed for bankruptcy. Since only he had signed the lease, not he and his wife, We could only sue him. And since he had no assets and was basically worthless, we weren't going to get anything even if we won the lawsuit.

      Your idea will make it so rich people will simply pay some bum via a dead drop to steal from people they don't like. Since the bum has almost no assets, the most they'd be fined for the crime under your system would be like $50.

      And if the poorest folks aren't allowed to use bankruptcy to escape such material punishment, neither should shareholder either - dept should be assignable through shares to bring actual meaning to harm caused by companies.

      They are allowed to use bankruptcy to escape such material punishment. That they don't learn enough about the law to take advantage of the various protections the law allows is not my or the shareholders' fault. You remind me of my 5 year old niece. We were playing tic-tac-toe and she got full of herself after I let her win a few times. So I started winning. She then got mad and began changing the rules while we were playing so she could win again. If you're losing because you don't understand the rules, that's not a valid reason for changing the rules.

      The law exists because people decided those rules were a good idea. Just like ignorance of the law is not an excuse to violate it, ignorance of the law is also not a valid reason to overturn it. Corporate protections exist because while you can guarantee your own behavior, you cannot guarantee other people's behavior. So if you want people to be able to work together (that's all a corporation is - a bunch of people working together), you have to have a way for those people to be indemnified against punishment for the wrongdoings of other people they're working with. Otherwise you're back to the medieval practice of throwing an entire family into debtor's prison because the father couldn't pay back a loan. Or the North Korean practice of throwing all your relatives into a labor camp if you attempt to flee the country.

      If you make shareholders responsible for the wrongdoings of employees, basically nobody will ever invest in somebody else's company. It's just not worth the risk of going to jail or being stripped of your assets because somebody else committed a crime. As a result, only rich people will be able to afford to start a company. You'll have cut off one of the best ways for a regular person to become a rich person - by starting your own company. The rich will get richer, and the poor will get poorer. Precisely the opposite of the effect you intend.

      • by skegg ( 666571 )

        You remind me of my 5 year old niece. We were playing tic-tac-toe and she got full of herself after I let her win a few times. So I started winning. She then got mad and began changing the rules while we were playing so she could win again.

        Heh heh. She'll go far.

      • by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 22, 2019 @09:47AM (#58471294)

        Bankruptcy has a 5 year lookback provision to expressly prevent this type of hiding of assets.

        So you are FULL OF SH*T.

        Why lie?

    • Shouldn't it be something like "50% their assets, foreign and domestic

      No. Someone who lives hand to mouth or paycheck to paycheck won't lose much at all in that case. Someone who has been frugal, paid off the mortgage and put away a nice nest egg or college fund for the kids, would stand to lose what has taken a lifetime (perhaps several generations) to build. A percentage of earnings would be fairer (some countries already apply this to traffic fines)

      • When you're wealthy enough you can afford to structure your finances such that you have no earnings. Steve Jobs was famously only paid $1 for his job as CEO of Apple. Wealth can be hidden off-shore so that it doesn't show up on the books, and this is something that those who are wealthy enough to afford doing will often do. It just makes too much financial sense, and bad policies like this only incentivize it further.

        The cost and penalty of crimes should be in proportion to the damage done, not the abili
    • Whenever I see rulings like this, I'm somewhat struck by the odd "and a multiple of $25,xxx fine". Shouldn't it be something like "50% their assets, foreign and domestic".

      How do you define equality? Everyone being treated the same way, or everyone experiencing the same effect?

      A tall a medium and a short person are trying to watch a football game over a fence. They have 3 boxes. Is equality giving them a box each because they are all human and should be treated the same way? Or is equality giving the short person 2 boxes, the medium person 1 box, and the tall person none, all now able to watch the football game?

      • I say we put the midget in the box and the tall and medium people can throw it over the fence and disrupt the football game, because science.

      • by skegg ( 666571 )

        How do you define equality?

        A less philosophical, more pragmatic question: what sort of society do you want to live in?

        • Oh I know the answer. But ultimately the problem is the term equality differs with your leaning on the political compass, and countries like the USA are pretty split across it.

          I know which society I want to live in. I also know that some numb-nuts on here would label me a a socialist or a communist as a result. The world ... is a complicated place full of complicated people .... (who I think are wrong!)

    • by noodler ( 724788 )

      "Shouldn't it be something like "50% their assets, foreign and domestic"."

      That sounds like a mighty stupid idea.
      Anyone without meaningful 'assets' would not really be punished and basically get away with the crime.
      So while you protect yourself against rich folks you leave your flank open to people who have nothing to lose.

    • by decep ( 137319 )

      > Shouldn't it be something like "50% their assets, foreign and domestic".

      He was a social media influence. 50% of nothing is still 0.

  • may of been cheaper to just kill him and no jury will convict

  • "The victim shot the intruder multiple times and called the police."
    And yet the intruder survived.

    • "Tulta Munille!"

    • "The victim shot the intruder multiple times and called the police."

      One bullet through a kneecap and the intruder will not present any further threat. As long as no arteries are hit, the it's a very effective method of disabling someone without killing them.

      • First, no. People have continued fighting with crazy leg/knee damage. Mostly, kneecapping will stop them, but if you get one of those guys that won't go down you're going to have to shoot them again anyway. He potentially stays dangerous much longer.

        Second, shooting someone in the kneecap is hard to do, especially in the midst of a chaotic wrestling match. He's moving, you're moving, the two of you are bumping into each other, your fine motor skills are gone (unless you have some very specialized traini

      • "The victim shot the intruder multiple times and called the police."

        One bullet through a kneecap and the intruder will not present any further threat. As long as no arteries are hit, the it's a very effective method of disabling someone without killing them.

        Kneecaps are difficult targets to hit. Aim for the torso.

      • Always aim for center mass. I don't even own a gun and I know this. If you are in stabbing range you might only get one shot. You miss, you die.

        Also, if you are in a home, consider collateral damage. If you were to miss you may be sending bullets through your neighbor's window. Or the walls of your own house into your family.

  • At least the perp got a domain fitting for a idiot. : slashdotac.net
  • Hey, I've got more money then he has. So just take it from him and give it to me. You have the legal right to do it. I saw it in the papers. It's called something like Eminent Domain Name."

  • Bwahahahaha!

  • by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Monday April 22, 2019 @02:25AM (#58470058)
    From a CNN article [cnn.com] (and presumably others):

    "Between 2015 and 2017, Adams repeatedly tried to obtain 'doitforstate.com,' but the owner of the domain would not sell it. Adams also threatened one of the domain owner's friends with gun emojis after the friend used the domain to promote concerts," court records show.

    Then he had an idea: Why not take it by force?

    And the rest sounds like a future episode of Drunk History ...

  • I mean I never heard of this guy, and I googled up twitter and other platform it seems his account were probably gone (or I am googling the wrong thing - we have the name only not the handles). I am curious if anybody know their handle and what was it they "influenced" (is the sarcasm dripping enough or should I mention it more ?).
  • That failed. Well I'm truly shocked.

  • Am I the only one that was surprise reading the article when it got to the point where the victim gain control of the gun and shot him multiple times? I did not expect to read that he’s been charged in faces 20 years. With the slow police response time I was certain he would’ve bled out by the time the cops got there.

    • by PPH ( 736903 )

      Not surprised. Shooting at a moving target under stressful conditions is difficult to do. Most of the rounds were either misses or non-lethal hits. Humans are actually difficult to kill. [dailymail.co.uk] Hence the need for high capacity magazines for self defense.

      The above link describes what some have determined to be a .357 magnum revolver. And the perp survived.

  • Intruder should have been dead. Victim should have just fired every round in to the guy.

    At least I would have.
    • He probably did, who knows how many went spraying around the room while they wrestled for the gun, and then when he got it it'd have been wildly aiming for center of mass while they threw an office chair back and forth or whatever.
      • Hey it's Iowa, cornfed intruder could have had more than 14 inches of body fat over his vitals, so the average self defense round would have come to a halt.

  • by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Monday April 22, 2019 @10:27AM (#58471540)
    On the plus side, perhaps the domain will have expired by the time they get out of prison.

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