Calgary, September 2025
Martin was a hacker. He belonged to a group of teenagers who were breaking into computer accounts to steal money. Not huge amounts, which would start a real police investigation, but enough to buy themselves gadgets they so much liked to play with. They thought it was fun, but the victims of their crimes didn’t think so. And one of the victims was Martin’s mom.
It happened one afternoon when Martin returned from school and saw his mom almost crying.
“What happened?” he asked.
“Someone stole money from my account.”
“How much?”
“About 1000 dollars.”
Martin knew right away who stole it. He often laughed with his friend Jake about their parents’ ignorance of computer security. “It would be so easy to break into my mom’s account. She doesn’t know anything about computers,” Martin kept telling Jake, and it was true. She never had a job requiring computer knowledge. But now, when Jake did break into her account, Martin was facing a dilemma: What to do next? He could let it go and leave his mum to try to recover the money, or he could force Jake to return it. He could also tell his parents the whole truth, but that was something Martin wasn’t prepared to do.
When his dad came home from work, the situation got even worse.
“Someone stole 1000 dollars from my account,” said mom as soon as he entered the door.
“How could that happen? I thought our accounts were safe. How did you find out?”
“The bank called and asked me if I withdrew 1000 dollars. Which I obviously didn’t.”
“But our money is insured, we wouldn’t lose it,” mentioned Martin’s father.
Then the parents talked about how it could happen, and Martin’s dad had a terrible thought. He turned to Martin and asked: “Did you do it?”
“No, I didn’t.” He shouted it out so convincingly that his parents believed him.
“What about your friends? They always play with computers. Could they have done it?”
“I don’t know,” lied Martin.
The next day at school, Martin was furious with Jake. During the recess, he pushed him against the wall and hissed: “You stole money from my mom.”
“So what? You said it would be easy.”
“My mom was always nice to you. When you were coming to our house, she was giving you cookies or something to drink. Is this how you repay her?”
“It was just easy money for me. That’s all.”
“Not this money. Now listen to me. As soon as you come home from school, you will return the money to her account. Then in the evening I will ask her to check it, and if the money is not there, I will tell everybody, including the bank, that you stole it.”
“And then I will tell everybody about the money you stole,” replied Jake just as angrily.
“If you do that, it will destroy our whole group. We would all get a criminal record for the rest of our lives. But if you return the money, I will say it was some kind of error, and we will leave it at that.”
Jake agreed. It looked like the only solution. Therefore, when in the evening Martin’s mom checked her account, 1000 dollars was returned and Martin explained it as a mistake in accounting. His parents believed it, but the bank didn’t. They wanted to know who stole and then returned the money, and the most obvious suspect was Martin. They checked his account, saw some suspicious transactions, disabled the account, and passed the case to the police. The cyberfraud department got access to Martin’s cell phone and laptop accounts, checked the suspicious transactions, and read the messages he was exchanging with his friends. A group of teenagers was bragging about the ease of breaking into other people’s accounts. That was enough for the police, and they called Martin to their office.
“Hello Martin, you are stealing money, aren’t you?” they greeted him, and a policeman showed him a list of suspicious transactions.
Martin didn’t say anything, and the policeman continued:
“Computer fraud is punishable up to 2 years in jail, a big fine, and a criminal record. Did you know that?”
At that point, Martin was really scared.
“We know you have friends who are also stealing money, and one of them stole $1000 from your mom,” continued the policeman. “It wasn’t you; that amount didn’t show on your account, but we want to know who did it. If you tell us, we will examine that account, disable it, and that will be all. If you don’t tell us, we will do a thorough investigation of you and your friends. There will be charges of computer fraud, a court case against you all, fines, may be jail, and a criminal record that will stay with you for the rest of your life. So: Who stole the money?”
“It was Jake,” Martin whispered.
“OK. We will investigate, and I hope you are not lying.”
When Martin went home, his parents asked what it was all about, and he started to cry. He told them about Jake, about his other friends, and about breaking into accounts and stealing money. “It was just fun for us,” he sobbed.
“It wasn’t fun for the people you were stealing from,” said his dad.
The next day at school, Martin told Jake about his visit to the police station. He also told him that the police know about him stealing 1000 dollars from his mom, and that his bank account is now frozen. “They know all about us,” he said.
“So, returning the money didn’t help, did it?” Jake was furious. He pushed Martin out, walked away and that’s how their friendship ended.
An old saying proclaims that every bad experience can bring something good in us. By making mistakes, we learn. Martin’s experience with the police really scared him. He realized how close he came to a disaster. If they charged him with computer fraud, he would be found guilty. There would be a big fine, maybe jail, and the worst of all, a criminal record. Such a record would affect his employment opportunity, potential requests for financial aid, the possibility of travel, and would bring a stigma to his family. Martin was determined never again to do anything which could cause it. From then on, his only law infringements were speeding tickets or illegal parking. Martin became a responsible citizen of his country.