Hacker Fakes His Death to Stop Paying Child Support

A man from Kentucky hacked into the official death registry systems to fake his death to avoid paying child support. A U.S. District Judge has sentenced him to 81 months, or almost seven years, in prison for computer fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Some hackers try to compromise a company by installing malware or stealing data, but others have more immediate and personal interests at heart. Jesse Kipf from Kentucky owed child support, but figured being dead was a good way to skirt his obligations.

“In January 2023, Kipf accessed the Hawaii Death Registry System, using the username and password of a physician living in another state, and created a ‘case’ for his own death,” reads the US DoJ press release.

“Kipf then completed a State of Hawaii Death Certificate Worksheet, assigned himself as the medical certifier for the case and certified his death, using the digital signature of the doctor.  This resulted in Kipf being registered as a deceased person in many government databases.”

While this in itself might seem brazen, he wasn’t actually a beginner. It turns out that he also infiltrated other states’ death registry systems, private business networks, and governmental and corporate networks using credentials he stole from real people. To make matters worse, he tried to sell those credentials on the dark web.

Kipf pleaded guilty to computer fraud and aggravated identity theft. He must serve at least 85 percent of his prison sentence and will remain under supervision for another three years. The damages he caused to the computer systems, along with child support obligations, amount to almost $200,000.