Computer Crime Case C: Employee Theft

In this case, a large real estate business owner had four employees steal his entire client contact list and use it to start their own competing real estate business. The four employees of the victim company contacted the clients on the stolen contact list to explain that they were starting their own business and to offer the same services their employer offered, only for cheaper. The employees then stole the client lists from the company computers, saved them to their own computers, and gave their employer their resignations the same day.

Investigators from a forensic consulting firm were hired by the real estate business owner to find evidence of the theft and testify to their findings in small claims court. The forensic investigators copied the victim company computers and found evidence that the files were copied off of the system. This act was a violation of the employment contracts the victim company had with the former employees because the client list was sensitive company information.