WESTFIELD – Most of us are probably guilty of having passwords that are too obvious or having lent someone our credit or debit card. That sounds innocent enough but last week, two defendants were charged in cases that stemmed from accessing another person’s account.
On July 14, Timothy M. Jones, 40, of West Springfield, pleaded guilty in Westfield District Court to three counts of larceny over $250, meaning he used the victim’s debit card without permission.
Jones received an 18-month sentence to the House of Correction, time served, balance suspended, one year probation, and was ordered to pay $3,850 in restitution annd to stay away from the victim.
On Friday, in Westfield District Court, Paula Greenough, 47, of Southwick, had charges of unauthorized access to a computer system continued without finding, which means the defendant agreed there is enough evidence to prosecute but is neither pleading guilty nor not guilty. She received six months probation and was ordered to stay away from the victim.
While these two cases are very different, the one thing they have in common is whom to trust.
In Greenough’s situation, the victim did not directly release any personal information to the defendant, but the two were close friends, so Greenough was able to guess the victim’s password and gain access to her My Verizon account.
In February, the victim went to State Police Russell Barracks to report that a friend of hers had hacked her cellular phone.
Greenough told Trooper Mark Rogers that she accessed the victim’s account to add the Integrated Messaging feature to the victim’s phone, which enabled the defendant to read all of the victim’s text messages, according to court records.
The victim had received a text message from Verizon welcoming her to Integrated Messaging, but told police she had ignored it because she didn’t understand what it meant. A mutual friend eventually alerted the victim that her phone may have been hacked.
Greenough’s motivation for hacking the victim’s phone was suspicions that there was a relationship between her husband and the victim, and told police that she was concerned about “losing my husband,” according to court documents.
“Be Smart About Your Password,” is advice offered on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission website.
The best passwords, of course, are ones that are difficult to guess, according to the SEC.
Passwords should contains a combination of numbers, letters (both upper case and lower case), punctuation, and special characters, the SEC suggests, and passwords should be changed regularly.
In Jones’s case, he met the victim while incarcerated. The victim allowed the defendant to use his home since Jones was released before the victim, according to court records.
Additionally, the victim allowed Jones to sign out his wallet from the lockup at Westfield District Court.
Jones was charged with 19 offenses, but 16 of those charges were dismissed. The prosecutor dismissed those charges because the victim had given permission to the defendant to take money out of his account, according to court records.
Allegedly though, Jones used the victim’s debit card eight times in Westfield between September 7 and September 29 without the victim’s permission, totaling nearly $3,000.
“For every innocent incident of credit card borrowing or lending, there are potential problems that can result,” according to CreditCards.com. A one-time privilege can get stretched.
The best advice: be savvy in all situations regarding identity and finances, no matter what.
