Just in case you’re a computer geek who might be thinking that hacking would be a great, quick way to make some serious money, here’s an example to make you think again.

25 year old Van T. Dinh has been busted not once, but twice for his hacking and identity theft activities. When he was 19, Dinh created a computer virus that posed as a stock-trading tool, which he used to steal another investor’s login information to a brokerage account. He then used that account to buy worthless stock options from himself at a value of $47,000. He was caught, but apparently 13 months of jail time and 3 years of supervised release were not enough to get him to mend his ways.

Just recently Dinh hacked into a currency exchange service and attempted to add $110,000 into his account. He was caught again, and after being held without bail for “being a danger to the community by hacking activities”, has plead guilty to computer fraud and identity theft in federal court.

This guy may have had the brains to be able to hack into the programs, but he obviously wasn’t smart enough to keep from getting caught, or to learn his lesson the first time around. If you’re good with computers, there are many productive (and legal!) ways to earn a living, but this definitely isn’t one of them.

Photo credit : zakwitnij