Will Work for Fraud

Homeless Shelter Used in Online Fraud

Police say a homeless man swindled more than $30,000 using the shelter's computers.

March 24, 2000

In the summer of 1998, officer Randy Andrews of the San Jose Police
Department's high tech unit got a complaint about an online auction
fraud. The complaint alleged someone was selling electronic
equipment on Yahoo! but wasn't delivering the purchased goods.
"I was able to pull the actual data sheet from Yahoo and identify the
person as being a Jack Felker with an address here in San Jose,"
Andrews told CyberCrime legal analyst Luke Reiter ,of ZDNET
(See Felker's photo, above.)

But it wasn't just any address. The seller's personal profile listed the
address of the Boccardo homeless shelter in San Jose, California. And
the staff confirmed that 19-year-old Jack Lee Felker was a former
resident.

Police said that Felker was staying at the shelter when he operated his
scam. They said he visited webpages such as the one for Sony. When
he found listings for computer equipment, for example, he would post
the exact same items on Yahoo! at a lower price. Police say the
evidence suggests that he did it all using the homeless shelter's
computers.

"To the best of my knowledge, the only access to a computer he had was
at the homeless shelter and that he had no other computers with him,"
Andrews told Reiter.

That's exactly what the shelter's staff, such as communications manager
Maury Kendall, contends.
"I remember Lee because he was a large guy and he was pretty friendly
and personable," Kendall told Reiter. "I also remember him because he
had a laptop and a wireless modem-- something we don't usually see at
an emergency shelter.

"We do see a lot of cell phones, we do see a fair share of laptops and
some PalmPilots and answering devices too, but Lee stood out for the
wireless Ricochet modem."

An arresting scam
The shelter's computer lab today is part of a program sponsored by Cisco
Systems, designed to teach the homeless about computers. Although it
is not the lab that Felker had access to, the shelter admits that Felker had
access to several machines during his stay. He also received mail using
the shelter's street address.

"One resident told us that she saw a $16,000 check and a $15,000 check in
his possession on one day," Andrews told Reiter. "That was communicated
to the staff and that was ultimately the reason why he was asked to leave.
He had received [the checks] through the US mail."
Once Felker left the Boccardo shelter, police didn't know where to find him.
At one point, they believe he tried to cash a victim's check in Las Vegas.
Eventually, they found him in their own backyard, at the Town House Motel
in San Jose.

"He had taken up residency there, and he was again creating websites and
doing auctions and receiving money in advance and not shipping product to
the persons who had sent him money," Andrews told Reiter.
When Felker was arrested in April 1999, the police found four computers in
his room. They said the computers were evidence that Felker was still
conning prospective buyers.

"Every time there would be a time frame where [a fraud victim] would
wonder where their money is, or wonder where their product is, he would be
there on the Web giving them a new message, saying, 'I'm so sorry, I have
a shipping problem. FedEx isn't doing this, it's not my fault, I'll make it up
to you, on and on and on," Andrews told Reiter. "And all of that was bought
hook, line, and sinker by the vast majority of these victims."

"I think it's very ironic and very only-in-Silicon Valley that someone staying
in a shelter for people who are homeless can take advantage of the
technology that the valley creates to do something like that," Kendall said.
Felker pled guilty to one count of grand theft on June 24, 1999, according to
Frank Dudley Berry, an assistant district attorney with the Santa Clara DA's
office. He was sentenced to three years probation and six months of home
electronic monitoring, despite the fact that he was homeless when he
committed the crime.

Prosecutors say Felker never showed up to arrange his home monitoring
sentence, and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

<~~stupid

For Luke Reiter's report, click here.

Change my video options

I remember him because he had a laptop and a wireless modem

-- Maury Kendall, homeless shelter manager