The 19-year-old scammer Jonathan Baldino is likely to face multiple fraud charges in court, including a Level 5 fraud charge, which is the most severe level of fraud. Baldino was caught on Wednesday (November 30) last week after he falsified the barcode price of a $150 iPod to just $4.99.
Baldino, a freshman electrical engineering student at the University of Colorado Boulder, admitted to police that he created counterfeit barcodes using real barcodes he had peeled off from cheaper items.
On November 16, he downloaded a program from the Internet called “Barcode Magic.” He used this program to create a counterfeit barcode identical to that of a portable CD player he had purchased for $24.99. After successfully crafting this fake barcode, he brought it to the store and replaced the barcode on the $249.99 iPod, successfully completing the scam. However, when he attempted the same trick on the $150 iPod, he was caught in the act.
THIEN TRANG
