Ex-Boyfriend Sued For Cyber Harassment

by Alexis Shaw

A Virginia woman is suing her ex-boyfriend after he tormented her and her teenage daughter by posting their photos on prostitution sites, sending dozens of men to their home, and distributing nude photos of the woman to her co-workers, her daughter and her daughter's friends.

The year long harassment caused the woman to lose her job in a bank and forced her to change her name, the woman's complaint states. ABC News is withholding the woman's new name.

Soraida Hicks' ex-boyfriend, Bruce Stimon, pleaded guilty in December 2012 to stalking, felony identity theft, and extortion. He was sentenced on Jan. 25 to three years in prison.

Now Hicks and her daughter Pam, 16, have filed a $20 million civil suit against Stimon. She is claiming slander, libel, and infliction of emotional distress, according to court documents.

"I didn't think that he was going to be crazy," Hicks told ABC Washington D.C. affiliate WJLA. Hicks could not be reached for comment by ABCNews.com.

Hicks and Stimon, who is 46, met on a plane traveling from Boston to Washington in the fall of 2011, and the two started a long-distance relationship. Hicks lives in Arlington, Va., and Stimon lived in Kensington, N.H.

According to Hicks' attorney, David Shurtz, Stimon showered Hicks with gifts, even buying Hicks an iPhone and paying for her service on his family plan.

But Shurtz said Stimon used the iPhone as a way to make himself the only man in her life, and he gained access to Hicks' contacts and emails in order to control her.

According to the complaint, "the gift was a deliberate plot to surreptitiously keep track of all the contacts and comings and goings of [Hicks]."

Hicks was unaware of her boyfriend's monitoring until January 2012 when she learned that Stimon "had created a web site advertising her services as a prostitute," according to the complaint. At the time Hicks was in Paraguay visiting her parents, a trip Stimon had financed.

Stimon posted Hicks' name and address, as well as her photos, on web sites advertising prostitution, and listed Hicks' supervisor at her workplace as her point of contact, the complaint states.

"He was creating an artificial theory so that he would be the only man she would contact," Shurtz said. "And the theory was that she was under a cyber attack. And he came to her and said, 'Ah ha! I will be your white knight and I will stop the cyber attack.'"

Instead, Hicks broke up with Stimon and reported the harassment to the Arlington County Police Department.

"From January to probably about March, we were just trying to compile information and figure out what was going on," said Det. Angela Comer of the Arlington County Police Department.

Stimon's cyber attacks escalated. He sent explicit photographs of Hicks to her friends and co-workers, causing Hicks to lose her job as a financial sales consultant at a bank, according to the complaint.

He created a fake Twitter account and sent videos of Hicks and himself having sex to Hicks' daughter and her daughters' friends. The videos were taken without Hicks' consent, the complaint said. It also stated that Stimon also advertised both mother and daughter for sex, sending men to her apartment nearly 60 times.

The investigation involved several sections of the Arlington County Police Department.

"The commonwealth attorneys, the tactical unit, just about every unit in our department had a hand on this case," Comer said.

Comer said Hicks filed a protective order against Stimon in June 2012. When he came to court to dispute the order, he was arrested for "stalking, unlawful filming, and use of a person's identity to harass," but was released on bond a few months later, Comer said.

Woman Sues Ex-Boyfriend for Cyber Harassment

Police tried to keep Hicks' phone number a secret from Stimon, but it frequently needed to be changed as Stimon would figure it out and harass Hicks, Comer said.

In November police caught Stimon slashing Hicks' car tires near her home. He was arrested and charged with destruction of property, stalking, and violating the protective order Hicks had filed against him.

"What was so devastating to Mr. Stimon was that when he was caught, his computer and cell phone were in his car, and they became evidence," said Shurtz.

original story found here

Cyberharassers: You Can Hide, But You Can Not Run

If you think using a false identity will allow you to slander or harass people online, think again. Anonymity will not save you.

By Dan Tynan

You gotta love the InterWebs. You can get away with saying practically anything about anybody-- and if you hide behind a fake identity, nobody will ever be able to tell it’s you. Right?

Well, no. You can’t just say slander or harass someone without repercussions. If what you say or do would break a law in physical space, it will also break laws in cyber space. And I don’t care how anonymous you think you are, your identity is only a subpoena away.

(REMINDER: Every victim who's predator/ harasser has been exposed on EOPC has to sign a legally binding document that holds EOPC harmless. The post(s) is the FULL responsibility of the victim who sends the information to be posted.)

William Lawrence Cassidy found this out the hard way after he posted some 8,000 nasty, threatening, and disturbing tweets directed at one woman: Alyce Zeoli, a Buddhist leader in Maryland.

Cassidy, who also went by a variety of aliases including Tulku Urgyan Tenpa Rinpoche and Marshal Jim Duncan, probably thought he was being clever by posting the tweets via fake names. He wasn’t. He's now cooling his heels in a Maryland jail cell, awaiting trial for cyber harassment.

Per the New York Times:

… in response to a subpoena, [Twitter] revealed the Internet protocol address of the computer used to post the messages. The authorities found Mr. Cassidy at home in a small Southern California town called Lucerne Valley. Similar rants were posted on blogs that law enforcement authorities say they traced to him.

I had a tiny taste of something similar myself recently, after I made a joke about the Tea Party in a blog post. I said that before I friended anyone on Facebook I always make sure they’re not ax murderers or Tea Party members. After this lone comment prompted a handful of “news” stories on right-wing sites, I tweeted out a formal apology – to ax murderers.

You’d think I’d bitch slapped Sarah Palin while strangling a puppy. I cannot repeat here most of the nasty NSFW things these people said about me in blog comments and on Twitter.

But the worst one was the pseudonymous a**clown who made a “joke” by tweeting about my alleged fondness for kiddie porn. I informed him that he was flirting with a defamation suit, but he didn’t care – he seemed to think he was immune.

I’m not sure what these people thought they’d achieve by this campaign, but I think they proved my point about why I wouldn’t want to friend them.

Some free speech advocates argue that Twitter is a public forum where all voices should be heard. In Cassidy’s case, his alleged harassment of Zeoli seems to go well beyond free speech and into threats against her physical safety.

In my case, well, I’m a big fan of the First Amendment – I use it every day -- but I don’t think it gives you a license to slander or knowingly spread falsehoods. And I’m not alone.

“There is a whole litany of things that are not protected by the First Amendment, including illegal activity and copyright violations,” notes Bennet Kelly, a Los Angeles attorney specializing in cyber law who’s also an award-winning blogger for the Huffington Post.

Kelley often represents people who’ve been harassed or stalked online, typically by people posting anonymously or via a fake identity.

“These people think they’re immune, that they can hide their identity and get away with anything,” says Kelley. “But the victims usually have a pretty good idea of who these people are, and if not, we can investigate and find out.”

The simplest route: Take the account information and/or IP addresses used by the harasser, and demand their real identity and contact info from their service providers.

Once Kelley approaches the harassers, they usually take the offending material down to avoid further legal consequences.

Unfortunately, cyber harassment doesn’t get the attention it deserves, says Kelley. “People get all upset about cookies invading the privacy,” he says. “When’s the last time someone committed suicide over a cookie?”

TY4NS blogger Dan Tynan hasn’t sued anybody yet, but there’s still time. Visit his snarky, occasionally NSFW blog eSarcasm or follow him on Twitter: @tynan_on_tech.


original article here

...ONLY AFTER ONE THING

by Jill Papworth

OFT warns against scammers who build fictitious profiles on dating websites and befriend other users before asking for cash. Con artists on dating websites may ask for money to cover urgent medical treatment for a family member

Romantics should be on their guard against internet dating scams that can not only rip you off financially but also break your heart. The latest scam alert from the Office of Fair Trading warns that the increased potential to meet people online is being used by criminals to con people out of their money.

"Romance fraudsters" target singles columns and dating websites to search for victims. They create fictitious online profiles and send out unsolicited emails or letters, often with fake photographs, using the trust they build up to persuade their victims to part with large sums of money in frauds that can go on for years.

These typically involve the scamster telling their victim they want to meet them but are stranded without the money to travel or cover visa costs. They may also say that they or a family member require urgent treatment for an illness. The OFT says in one recent case a British national was kidnapped after travelling to west Africa expecting to be met by someone with whom they had established an online friendship. The individual had no idea that the online 'friend' was the fictional creation of a criminal group. The victim was assaulted, imprisoned for four days, and was released only when a ransom was paid.

"All fraud is destructive but dating scammers are particularly ruthless as they abuse the emotional trust and attachments that people invest when looking to meet someone," says Heather Clayton, senior director of the OFT's consumer group. The OFT says dating site users should take the following steps to avoid becoming victims:

• Know what you are paying for and what the dating agency promises to provide in return.

• If you receive any requests for money, be suspicious, even if you have known the person for a number of weeks.

• Be sceptical and ask yourself simple questions, for example, "Why am I the only person who can help them, when I have just met them?"

• If you meet somebody unknown to you, always meet in a public place and take a friend with you for support if you are unsure.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) adds that if you do decide to travel to meet an online friend, particularly if you go abroad, tell someone trustworthy where you are going, plan regular contacts and agree what they should do if you miss a contact.


original article found here

Research Volunteers Were Actually a Predator's Targets.

(U.K.) A 'calculating sexual predator' posed as a gynaecological researcher to lure young women to his flat and sexually assault them.

Student Liam Ryan, 21, posted an ad on the Gumtree website calling for female volunteers to take part in 'global medical research', in exchange for £500. More than 200 women, mainly cash-strapped students, responded to Ryan's online advert, but only three - including a 19-year-old - agreed to be examined. The women were promised £500 for undergoing an invasive internal examination at Ryan's flat in a tower block in Birmingham. But when the former business management student failed to hand over the cash, the police were informed.

Ryan pleaded guilty to two charges of assault by penetration and three charges of engaging in sexual activity without consent at Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday. He was jailed for four and a half years, ordered to sign the Sex Offenders' Register for life and was made the subject of a ten-year sex offender prevention order.

Detective Constable Susan Mabbett of West Midlands Police said after the sentencing: 'Liam Ryan is a calculating sexual predator who deliberately targeted vulnerable women via the internet. If it had not been for the courage of these women who contacted us, I have no doubt that he would have continued to offend. I commend their strength of character which has resulted in this man being jailed. When released he will be closely monitored. Of course, all of this comes too late for them. They will forever be haunted by their attacker’s depraved acts.'

The court was told that Ryan, who ran his scam from his flat in Highgate, Birmingham, claimed to be carrying out international medical research for a Canadian university.

One 19-year-old victim was subjected to a degrading 40-minute attack that Ryan claimed was important scientific research, the court heard. She returned home to Manchester but only realised she had been sexually assaulted when she received no cash after the so-called examination. She reported the incident to Greater Manchester Police who contacted West Midlands Police.

Ryan was arrested last December on suspicion of sexual assault.

Officers swooped on Ryan’s home where they discovered thousands of pages of mobile phone records and emails from 200 women. All the women were contacted by police but only a handful came forward to say that they had realised the project was a scam and had not pursued Ryan’s offer. Others could not be traced. They discovered Ryan had targeted a 24-year-old PhD student from Birmingham who became suspicious and refused to take part in the examination.

When officers quizzed Ryan he initially claimed the project was legitimate but later admitted he had invented the story in order to abuse women.

original article found here

Facebook: A Place for Cyberstalking

by Mat Bettinson

So says the National Centre for Cyberstalking Research

The first British study into so-caller 'cyberstalking' has fingered Facebook as the most likely avenue for the harassment suffered by online stalking victims.

Prepared by researchers from the University of Bedfordshire's National Centre for Cyberstalking Research (yes, there is such a thing), the draft report called Cyberstalking in the United Kingdom (pdf) has been presented to MPs as part of a parliamentary inquiry into Cyberstalking.

The report authors said that males were more likely to experience a "harasser" damage their reputation while women were more likely to "focus on fear of physical harm," the report said.

Most of those surveyed by the report had their initial contact with their stalker offline, although eight per cent initially met via social networking. However after the initial contact, social networking was the preferred method for cyberstalkers to harass their victims, ahead of webmail and text messages.

The report authors said that providers of online services had a "duty" to their users to combat cyberstalkers.

"There needs to be a clear process so users know how to report harassment and a time limit so a site must respond within a set number of days," report author Professor Carsten Maple told the BBC.

Men Show Up Wanting Sex After 'Ex Posted Fake Craigslist ads'

By Mark Duell

(U.S.A.) A jilted boyfriend allegedly placed a series of fake adverts on Craigslist that appeared to be from his pregnant ex-girlfriend asking men for sex.

Andre Flom, 31, of Portland, Oregon, put up ads with her number and address - and up to 20 men would arrive at her home for sex, police said.

Postings under the name of Catlin Moser, 29, said ‘hit me up - I’m super horny’ and that she wanted ‘guys to take turns giving it to me good’.

The posts also asked people to remove a Japanese maple tree and a play structure from her garden, reported the Smoking Gun website.

‘He was posting my name, my phone number and my address on Craigslist for really obscene sex parties,’ Ms Moser told Fox affiliate KPTV. I was having men showing up at my house all hours of the night.'

He even allegedly posted the contact details of Ms Moser’s mother, who said she would get around 100 obscene text messages in five minutes. ‘The kinds of things that were being said were pretty obscene,’ the mother told CBS affiliate KVAL. ‘He'd set up times for them to come over.’

CONTENT OF THREE ADS ON CRAIGLIST

'What's up, my name's Catlin and I’m very real, looking for a sexy guy to come give me what I need, hit me up - I'm super horny'

'Having a party tonight at my house: encourage single guys to come through, lots of beer and single women, here is a recent pic of me, my name's Catlin, let's go boys'

'Hey, so I'm at home bored, lookin for a guy, or guys to take turns givin it to me good'

It began in October after Flom was convicted of domestic violence and more than 35 adverts were posted on the listings website, police said. Flom was convicted of strangling Ms Moser, who has a two-year-old son, last autumn and she won a restraining order against him.

One of the ads included her address, saying: ‘I’m very real, looking for a sexy guy to come give me what I need, hit me up - I’m super horny’. Another said she was ‘sitting at home bored’ wanting men to ‘give it to me good’ and was inviting people who ‘want to get a little dirty’.

Investigators subpoenaed Craigslist to give them records that showed nearly all of the fake adverts came from the same network location.

In a twist, investigators traced this to Flom’s next-door neighbour. But it turned out the man had an unsecured wireless router in his house. Police raided Flom’s home on Tuesday and took away a computer, modem and mobile phones, reported the Smoking Gun.

Flom was charged with computer crime and identity theft and is being held in Multnomah County jail in lieu of posting a $30,000 bond.

original article here

Another Online Dating Nightmare

(Eastbourne, U.K.) A widow who was looking for love on the internet has hit out at the courts after a man who conned her and broke into her home escaped jail.

Amanda Avery criticised the legal system this week after hearing that Colin Bradish – a man who she says made her life hell – was handed a 50-week suspended sentence for burglary and harassment.

Bradish, 53, of Portslade, was also made subject of a restraining order banning him from contacting Ms Avery. However, according to his 43-year-old victim, he was still signed up to a host of other dating websites – leaving other women potentially at risk of being targeted.

Ms Avery, of East Dean, said the punishment should have been far more severe. Speaking to the Herald about her ordeal, she said, “You rely on the justice system and I feel let down by it. It is as if he has not even been punished for what he did.”

Having wormed his way into her affections, Bradish proceeded to break in, steal a laptop and set about hacking into a host of Ms Avery’s personal accounts.

And, as well as changing her mobile phone tariff and messing with other files, Bradish signed her up for a string of other dating websites and advertised her home address.

Ms Avery was devastated but, as she explained, the internet side of things was far from the most upsetting.

“The worst thing was,” she said, “that he came into my room and took my mobile phone from next to my bed. He would have been yards from where I was sleeping. For ages I had could not sleep because of the thought and used lay awake until it became light.”

Bradish was the first person Ms Avery had met online. In fact, she had only ended up on the dating website by accident after filling in an internet personality test and being told she had to sign up to get the results.

A day later, she was contacted by Bradish and he began spinning his web of lies.

“He photoshopped his picture,” remembered Ms Avery. “He is a good deal uglier in real life.”

“You won’t believe this but he had actually asked me if my photo was a current one because he said people often used one of themselves younger. When I saw him I thought ‘you’ve aged a bit’ but looks have never been the most important thing to me. He seemed nice and could hold an intelligent conversation.”

Ms Avery, who said she always tried to see the good in people but had been left feeling ‘a bit stupid’ after falling for Bradish’s carefully concocted deceit, did not rush into meeting her online date.

The pair exchanged messages and spoke at length on the phone before she decided to take the plunge and meet up. Now, having seen her home broken into and her trust shattered, she understandably wishes she had never met him.

“He was trying to control me,” She said. “He had nothing going on in his life. He had made up a fake job and all the rest of it. This was probably the only way he had of getting control.”

Although she slammed the courts for delivering such a lenient sentence, she reserved special praise for the police.

“You get idiots everywhere,” she said. “The internet is just another place for them."


original article here

Man Gets 18 Years in Prison for Internet Harassment

By Kat Asharya

A Minnesota (USA) hacker received 18-years in jail for cyber-harassment against his neighbors, demonstrating the chaos that hacking can cause on a personal level.

Barry Ardolf, 46-year-old angered his neighbors, Matt and Bethany Kostolnik, after kissing their young son. Ardolf then allegedly hacked into the Kostolniks' Wi-Fi router and hijacked e-mail accounts to frame them for child pornography, sexual harassment and professional misconduct.

"Barry Ardolf has demonstrated by his conduct that he is a dangerous man. When he became angry at his neighbors, he vented his anger in a bizarre and calculated campaign of terror against them," said prosecutor Timothy Rank in a court filing. "And he did not wage this campaign in the light of day, but rather used his computer hacking skills to strike at his victims while hiding in the shadows."

For example, Ardolf created a fake MySpace page for the husband, where he posted a picture of young teens engaged in sexual activity. He then e-mailed child porn to Kostolnik's co-workers at a law firm using Kostolnik's e-mail account, in addition to sending flirtatious messages to women in Kostolnik's office.

However, Ardolf pushed too far when he used the Kostolnik accounts to send a message threatening Vice President Joe Biden, which drew the involvement of the Secret Service and FBI. Working with packet sniffers installed by Kostolnik's law firm on its network, the federal agencies pinpointed Ardolf.

The FBI got a search warrant for Ardolf's house and computer, where they found large amounts of evidence, including hacking manuals and data copied from the Kostolnik's computers. They also found handwritten notes laying out Ardolf's detailed revenge plans, as well as messages for the family.

"I told you about a year ago that you should be very afraid. I can destroy you at will, you sorry-ass excuse for a human," one letter said.

Ardolf's campaign of cyber-intimidation may be small in scale in comparison to the spate of hacker intrusions into corporations and government websites over recent months, but it is a reminder of how deeply entrenched technology is with everyday life, and how more and more consumers must be vigilant against security threats.

"Over months and months, he inflicted unfathomable psychic damage, making the victims feel vulnerable in their own home, while avoiding detection," said Rank.

In addition to the 18-year prison sentence, Ardolf, who had no previous criminal record, forfeited his house and computer gear. Further investigation revealed he also hijacked the Wi-Fi networks of other neighbors and harassed them as well. He eventually pleaded guilty to identity theft and two child pornography accusations carrying lifetime sex-offender registration requirements.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE

Recovering When Your Email is Hacked

It could happen to you. An unbelievable computer hoax that took many people by surprise. Investigators call it the 419 scam or the Nigerian scam.

Computer hackers find a way into your email accounts and send out hundreds of bogus messages saying. In this case, they say you are stranded in another country and need money.

It happened to our very own travel expert Sue McCarthy. She shared her story of getting her email and Facebook accounts straightened out.

original article here

Womans Sues Whoever Posted her Nude Pics Online

(some cyberpaths take your nude pic and then, without your knowledge - SELL THEM to Amateur Porn sites! Never take nude pictures... EVER!)

by Lauren Smiley

​No need to dream of being Pamela Anderson or Paris Hilton or even former Miss California Carrie Prejean. You, too, can have your own internet sex scandal. Or nightmare.

A private citizen of San Francisco has filed suit in Superior Court against some rotten anonymous internet trolls who posted photos of her topless when she was 16 on Flickr and Badongo.com with her real maiden name. (We do not know her name because she has filed anonymously as Jane Doe.) The reign of cyber-terror continued when someone calling themselves "Iknow Whatitis" emailed her current husband six photos of her performing oral sex on her ex-husband. The message only said "[The woman's name] is using you. think about it." Ouch.

According to the suit, the woman, "through substantial effort, and the expenditure of considerable funds," was able to convince both Flickr and Badongo to take down the photos. Finding out who the culprits actually are is the trick now. After the woman's attorney wrote a harsh cease-and-desist letter to the her ex-husband, he wrote back denying any knowledge of the photos. The woman's current San Francisco-based attorney, Colette Vogele, has filed to serve subpoenas for business records on third parties to track down the bad guys' (or gals') IP address or user information.

Vogele declined to talk about the case, saying she wanted to keep it under wraps. "I don't want it to come out who she is. It would be bad if it would come out."

The woman is suing for injunctive relief, and compensatory and punitive damages. She is charging harassment, intentional infliction of distress and placing the plaintiff in a false light since the internet trolls posted the images using her own name as if she'd done it herself.

Moral of the story: Do not take sex pictures. Ever.

original story here

Felony Charges for Fake Internet Posting & Harassment

(MISSOURI) A St. Peters mom faces felony charges for allegedly making a fake posting on Craigslist.

It will be a landmark case.

She's the first person charged with a felony under a new Missouri internet harassment law.

Forty-year-old Elizabeth Thrasher is accused of making a sexually suggestive ad in the "casual encounters" section of Craigslist to embarrass a 17-year-old girl.

The girl is the daughter of a woman who is now dating Thrasher's ex-husband.

The ad contained the 17-year-old's picture, cell phone number and place of employment. After it went online, the girl started receiving calls, texts and even pornography from men responding to the ad.

Prosecutors say this is harassment and it falls under a new law written in response to the suicide death of 13-year-old Megan Meier.

Meier received disturbing MySpace messages from an adult writing from a fake account.

In this case, Thrasher is over 21 and the victim is under 17, so it qualifies as a felony.

But Thrasher's lawyer says the charge does not fit the crime.

He says the new law is poorly written and doesn't apply in this case.

"The statute is very poorly crafted," says Thrasher's lawyer, Mike Kielty. "And the behavior in this case that's alleged to be criminal is anything but."

Prosecutors disagree.

"The fact that someone went on another website and created a fake post in someone's name, I think that's exactly what this statue was written for," says St. Charles County Prosecutor Jack Banas.

Thrasher is due in court again at the end of the month. She posted bond so she is not in custody. Her lawyer says she plans to plead not guilty.

original post here