ISTANBUL

A US man is facing seven years in prison for faking his death to avoid child support payments, said the US Justice Department on Tuesday.

Jesse Kipf, in the southern state of Kentucky, accessed the death registration system by hacking into it and stealing the username and password of a doctor from another state.

Using the stolen doctor’s credentials, Kipf accessed the death registration system in Hawaii and created a death certificate for himself, signing it with the stolen doctor’s digital signature.

Kipf admitted to presenting himself as dead in various government databases, explaining that one of his motivations was to evade child support obligations.

He also hacked into death registration systems and other private and public networks across different states, attempting to sell access information to others.

After pleading guilty, Kipf was sentenced to some seven years in prison for fraud and identity theft.