Turning to the Net for Revenge

EOPC wants to remind all members and readers: 

• We are NOT a REVENGE site. 
• We do not follow around our exposed predators and harass them.  
• We do not hack.
• We are not legal or police help. 
• We purposely do not take any personal interest in anyone. 

Postings come from those who contact us and we make clear this site is not about personal revenge. We simply give victims a platform.

We are about reporting, education, safe internet use and treating others honestly -- even online.
We do these stories to show the patterns and pathology of net abusers as well as the downside of looking for love, friendship or money online.

REVENGE hurts everyone... and here's a good (bad) example:

By Beth Hale

(U.K.)When Richard Bradford suspected his nurse girlfriend of having an affair he subjected her to the ultimate revenge.

Furious that Shivanthi Panchalingam had allegedly cheated on him, he sent a naked picture of the ward sister to everyone in her email address book.

Miss Panchalingam, who works at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, in Reading, only learned of the humiliating betrayal when a friend called to say he had seen one of the photographs.

The couple had taken the risque photographs of one and other to spice up their love life after becoming a couple in August last year but Bradford used them against the nurse after their relationship broke down.

The nurse spoke of her distress as George faced court charged with harassment.

In a statement, read out by the prosecution, she said:

'My friend Steven received a picture of me naked. You could see my front and the photos were detailed. I have not seen any of the others.

'I find it very distressing and cannot bear to look at them. He sent them to my whole address book.'

'I am embarrassed to say the least. I am a ward sister; people work below me and I am worried about my career credibility.

'I have been unable to cope with this anymore.'

As well as the photographs, Reading Magistrates' Court heard how Bradford, 37, had called Miss Panchalingam up to 40 times a week at work.

Bradford, of Glynde Road, Brighton, East Sussex, initially denied harassing Miss Panchalingam, but later changed his plea.

Simon Hammudi, defending, said: 'My client is sorry about his behaviour and says it was unreasonable and has not had any contact with the victim since the allegation.'

Valerie Boddington, presiding magistrate, handed him a one-year community order, a supervision order of nine months and ordered him pay the victim £200 in compensation and £100 costs.

Bradford also had a restraining order placed on him to have no contact directly or indirectly with Miss Panchalingam and prohibited him from going within 200 yards of the hospital unless for a medical appointment or emergency.

It's not the first time that e-mail has been used to enact revenge, nor the first time that naked photographs have come back to haunt the person posing for them. Four years ago a jilted boyfriend was jailed after setting up a website with naked pictures and film of his former lover.

He then printed business cards giving the web address and handed them out at her 21st birthday party, posted them through her neighbours' letterboxes and gave them to her work colleagues.

It is not just men who use humiliation as revenge. A survey found that eight out of ten women would take revenge on a partner who dumped them - with most using the internet and email to get even.

SOURCE

Facebook Extortionist Sentenced

(U.S.A.) A Natalbany man will spend the next 10 years in prison after using Facebook to stalk and extort sex from women, and even a 14-year-old girl.

Prosecutors say Adam Kolb, 26, would contact women through Facebook, and eventually have them send him racy pictures of themselves. When they tried to cut off communication with Kolb, he threatened to release the pictures on the internet or send them to their families.

Other victims said that Kolb had tried to contact them multiple times with sexual advances, even thought they had asked him not to.

The 14-year-old girl claimed that Kolb knew how old she was at the time of their relationship.

Investigators said that Kolb also used his job as a pizza delivery man to meet women. They said that if he made a delivery to someone he was interested in, he would take a picture of their name and phone number and use it to start harassing them.

Detective Ed Bergeron said in Fall 2011 that investigators had identified over 50 victims.
Kolb was sentenced by Judge Robert Morrison to serve 10 years for each count of extortion (7 counts) and felony carnal knowledge (2 counts). In addition, he was sentenced two years for each count of cyber stalking (9 counts), and six months for defamation by hatred. He will serve the sentences concurrently.

When released, Kolb will have to register as a sex offender.

original article found here

BOOK REVIEW: Alexis: My True Story of Being Seduced by an Online Predator

Alexis: My True Story of Being Seduced by an Online Predator
By Alexis Singer

Reviewed by Gillian Fournier

Alexis: My True Story of Being Seduced by an Online Predator by Alexis Singer is about a very typical issue, loneliness. Loneliness can drive us to do things that seem completely irrational even to ourselves and that is just what happened to Alexis. In this mini novel, she had just broken up with her boyfriend, she was a child suffering from a complicated divorce, and to make it worse, she was in her awkward mid-teen years. These type of things can seem like the end of the world at the young age of and in Alexis’s case, those things drove her to get involved in the seedier side of the Internet.

After Alexis gives readers a bit of a briefing on her background, she launches into a detailed description of The Board, an online forum of sorts for thespians. The Board was a place she found comforting because despite not having any real friends, she seemed to be making digital ones that enjoyed talking to her about topics she was genuinely interested in. This ended up turning into a bad situation because although the majority of the people she had met on The Board seemed perfectly normal, there was one very sick individual waiting for someone just like Alexis. Phil, as he was known, was in his late 30s and preyed upon confused young women who frequented The Board. (sounds like our exposed predator DAN JACOBY!)

One especially lonely night, Alexis received a message from Phil asking if she was over 18 yet. This should have been a warning sign (even she recognizes that), but she was extremely desperate for some sort of attention and she replied. This was the beginning of a relationship of sorts that would include many inappropriate advances and words that no 16-year-old should ever hear from anyone (let alone a man old enough to be her father).

Throughout the book Alexis is coerced into having cybersex with Phil, taking naked pictures for him and even ends viewing a webcam live feed of Phil’s genitals. This may seem like enough to make anyone stop talking to a man like this, but Alexis explains how easily one can be talked into things. Phil was an expert at pushing the limits and then pulling back right when he knew she felt uncomfortable. He used this strategy to feel out how far he could push her and then later ended up getting what he wanted. What began with a simple request for an image of a new piercing became much more. In Alexis’s mind the transition didn’t seem like a big deal, since Phil made sure to ask for the “favors” in a very calculated manner.

Eventually, Alexis’s mother ended up finding out what has transpired and immediately banned her from the Internet. She also tried to find her daughter support groups and hired a detective to see if Phil could be prosecuted for being an Internet predator. In the end they decided not to press charges; the case could have caused more harm to Alexis’s life than one would think.

Alexis went to college and started to distance herself from the Internet and from Phil, though she does admit in the end that she still speaks with Phil every so often (though not in a sexual manner). She now has a new boyfriend and is learning the value of social interaction and honest love and friendship.

The book is very easy to read because it is small, the type is large, the chapters are short and without fail, each chapter ends with a little mini cliffhanger that makes you want to keep reading. The average to slower reader will be able to finish this book in less than two hours without breaking a sweat. The topic is interesting and engaging and Alexis is a character that is very relatable. Overall, Alexis represents the everyday girl you meet in high school — though she is sweet and endearing, there is nothing extraordinary about this character. She is simply ordinary, and that makes her real.

I think this book is a good resource for young girls who might be involved in an “innocent” flirtation with an Internet “friend.” It is from the point of view of a victim of online sexual abuse and therefore readers can empathize with her. It also does a great job of explaining teen loneliness.

I think that Alexis is a talented young writer and I hope to see more of her work in the future (hopefully about a brighter topic for her sake). As of September 2010 she is only 19, so I think readers can look forward to a wealth of interesting literature from Ms. Singer.

(NOTE FROM EOPC: this book covers EXACTLY how cyberpaths do it to ADULTS as well!!)

Man Rapes Girl, then Sets Up Facebook with Her Name

(U.S.A.) Travis Davis is facing stalking charges after he allegedly set up a Facebook account using the name of an ex-girlfriend he raped in Ohio to contact a more recent ex in Pennsylvania. He tried to force the woman he contacted to come back to him by threatening to distribute a secretly filmed sex tape.

The 23-year-old Indiana man was arrested Aug. 15 outside the second ex-girlfriend's home in Delmont, about 25 miles east of Pittsburgh, after someone called 911 to report a man sleeping in a suspicious vehicle outside, police said.

He had a .45-caliber pistol, three magazines of bullets and a box cutter, and the car had a stolen Pennsylvania license plate taped over the Indiana plate on his car, police said.

Davis had created a Facebook profile in the name of another ex-girlfriend, a woman he had raped in Preble County, Ohio, and used it to contact the Pennsylvania woman and her current boyfriend's family, police said.

A week before his arrest, police contend Davis sent the Pennsylvania woman a video of him having sex with her when both still lived in Indiana. The woman "never knew that this video was filmed in the first place and obviously never gave consent to send the video to anyone," a criminal complaint said.

Davis threatened in an e-mail to "send the video to everyone if she did not return to Indiana for him," a criminal complaint said.

A few days later, the Pennsylvania woman received a friend request from the Facebook page Davis created using the identity of his Ohio rape victim. Davis - pretending to be the Ohio woman - threatened to send the video to the Pennsylvania woman's current boyfriend if she did not move to Indiana, the complaint said.

Davis, still posing as the woman he raped, then messaged the Pennsylvania woman and told her he would keep the video a secret if she agreed to a "sexy video chat" with her ex-boyfriend over the Internet. Police say the Pennsylvania woman consented to the chat Aug. 12.

The next day, Davis called the woman claiming that his Facebook alter ego had sent him the video and "advised her, in sum and substance, that it may be in her best interest to return to Indiana," the complaint said.

On Aug. 14, nude images of the Pennsylvania woman were sent from the Facebook page to the woman and her boyfriend's mother, police said. Authorities said they have contacted Davis' accuser in Ohio, who confirmed the Facebook page wasn't hers.

Davis pleaded not guilty and faces charges of violating a protection from abuse order and stalking.

Davis remains in jail on $75,000 bail and his lawyer says he intends to prove his innocence.

original article here

Search for Suspect Who Sent Topless Pics to Woman's Office

(FLORIDA, U.S.A.) A woman who works at a Bonita Springs medical practice told Lee deputies she arrived to work Monday and found four facsimiles in the machine – of a picture she took of herself topless.

The woman, whose name and other information was not released, said the photo was the same one contained on her home computer that she took after she’d lost some weight, according to a Lee County Sheriff’s Office report. She never sent the photos to anyone, she told deputies.

She believes a man who wants to date her is responsible for hacking into her computer. She doesn’t want anything to do with the man, according to the report.

She does not know where the man lives, but told deputies where he works.

Deputies are investigating the incident as a cyber stalking complaint.


original article here

Harassing Texts Lead to Cyberstalking Charges

Last week, police arrested Devar L. Hurd for cyberstalking the mother of R&B singer Ashanti Douglas. Prosecutors report that Hurd sent Ms. Douglas over 30 explicit text messages. Some of the messages qualified as “sext” messages, including several photos of his genitals and messages about performing graphic sexual acts.

California’s cyberstalking laws are codified in Penal Code 646.9 PC. Simply put, Penal Code 646.9 PC cyberstalking prohibits using any “electronic communication device” (including a cell phone) to threaten or harass another person with the intention of placing that person in fear for his/her safety or for the safety of his/her family.

While cyberstalking may seem less harmful or intrusive than “traditional” stalking, the offenses are prosecuted and punished in much the same way. In fact, cyberstalking can actually be just as dangerous as traditional stalking, due in large part to the fact that blog postings, chat room conversations, and even e-mails can be sent anonymously. Because of this fact, law enforcement agencies have formed specialized units to aggressively investigate cyberstalking claims.

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

Louisana Man Charged with Cyberstalking & Transmission of Nudity

A number of our cyberpaths have done this - and their victims reported it yet LAW ENFORCEMENT DID NOTHING! Why is that? - EOPC

By Vickie Welborn

A Louisiana, USA man is accused of sending obscene photographs of himself and text messages with "language of a sexual nature" to two Minden women.

A weeklong investigation resulted in Webster sheriff's investigators arresting James Lee Adkins, 23, on Thursday night on one count each of cyberstalking, obscenity and telephone harassment.

On Friday, Minden police added an obscenity charge over a separate incident in which Adkins is suspected of sending inappropriate photos and text messages with "language of a sexual nature to the female without her consent or request," according to a sheriff's office news release.

Sheriff's investigators zeroed in on Adkins after completing a forensic search. "The victim provided her cell phone to me for examination after she received unwanted nude photographs of a man," sheriff's Sgt. Dustin Reynolds says in the release.

Adkins denied sending the photographs but ultimately admitted doing so after being shown his face mistakenly captured in a reflection in one of the photos, authorities said.

Comments he made while being interviewed by sheriff's investigators alerted authorities to the most recent incident, in which Adkins is accused of sending nude photographs of himself to another woman, Reynolds said.

"The same phone information was captured from a different complainant's cellular device through a forensic search that our office had recently conducted for the Minden Police Department," Reynolds said. "It also involved nude photographs that were sent to a different young woman.

Cyberstalking involves the unsolicited transmission of indecent material to anyone via a technological device. While many "sexting" cases involve underage victims, this one is a reminder that even adults can get into trouble by sending sexually explicit texts, the news release states.

"It's just never, ever a good idea to send indecent messages or photos," Reynolds said. "Once it's out there, you can never get it back. Someone somewhere will always have a copy."

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Facebook Helps Cybercrime Fighters in Case

School resource officers from across Alabama and the nation fielded complaints about an Internet extortionist badgering girls for nude pic­tures. Victims even created a Facebook page warning fe­males not to talk to the per­son with the username Meta­scape.

Metascape turned out to be Jonathan Vance, an Alabama man who made lewd cyber re­quests of 206 girls and young women and attempted to hack into and gain control of their e-mail, Facebook and MySpace accounts, federal authorities say. He was suc­cessful in at least 53 cases.

Johnathan Vance will serve 18 years in prison and then the rest of his life on probation as a sex offender.

Those complaints, includ­ing several from Birmingham-area high school students, sparked an investigation across state and federal juris­dictions. The groundbreaking case will be used as a tem­plate for cyber harassment cases and used to train law enforcement officials and prosecutors, federal authori­ties said.

This type of cybercrime is relatively new, and federal au­thorities said they know of no other case that comes close to the size of this one.

"We learned a lot from this case," said Assistant U.S. At­torney Daniel Fortune, who prosecuted the case. "We're going to use this case to edu­cate law enforcement, teach­ers, students and parents."

Vance, 24, of Auburn, was sentenced to 18 years in fed­eral prison last week after pleading guilty to several charges, including attempted production of child pornogra­phy and interstate extortion. Upon release Vance will have to report to a federal proba­tion officer for the rest of his life and register as a sex of­fender.

Only 53 victims agreed to cooperate in the investigation, authorities said. There likely are more victims authorities said they don't know about.

"The embarrassment factor was big in this case," said Dale Miskell, supervisory spe­cial agent for the FBI's cyber­crimes squad in Birmingham. "How can a girl go to her pa­rents and tell them what hap­pened? Even the adult victim didn't come forward until we contacted her."

Others either denied they were victims -- after being confronted with photographic evidence -- or simply refused to talk to investigators, For­tune said. Miskell said the FBI was able to identify the two minors and one adult who sent Vance nude pictures. There were four others agents were not able to identify. In some of the photos sent to Vance, authorities could not discern if the person was a minor and under what cir­cumstance Vance got the pho­tos.

'A difficult, unique case'
Authorities said from Janu­ary 2006 to June 2008, Vance targeted girls and women in Alabama, Pennsylvania and Missouri, ranging in age from 14 to 26. Miskell said the FBI got involved in the fall 2007 after a Hoover High School re­source officer reported a com­plaint he received from a stu­dent.

Starting with only a screen name, Miskell said, FBI agents were able to track down Vance. Vance eluded authori­ties for a while by changing screen names -- using as many as 10 -- after word got out about Metascape.

It took the cooperation of law enforcement and victims across several jurisdictions before the FBI pinned Vance as their man. "Tracking him down was complicated . . . This was really a difficult, unique case," Fortune said.

Vance lived with his grand­parents in Auburn. He was born to a teenage mother and was adopted by his grandpa­rents as a child, according to court records. He grew up be­lieving that his mother was his sister. He was active in his church -- Vance attended church with some of his vic­tims -- and sang in the choir.

Vance's defense lawyer, Tommy Spina, said in court records and at the sentencing hearing that Vance's austere upbringing might have led to his behavior.

Agents seized his computer in December 2007, but months later, Vance bought a laptop and his conduct esca­lated. He was arrested in July.

Court records show Vance gained control of his victims' Yahoo, Hotmail, Facebook and MySpace accounts using several means. In interviews with the FBI, Vance said he would contact his victims through instant messaging and pretend to be a friend or a relative. He persuaded some victims to give him their login and password information, saying he was locked out of his own Facebook, MySpace or e-mail account.

In more complicated in­stances, Vance hacked into his victims' e-mail accounts using information from public Face­book pages, which included information such as birth dates, the names of the vic­tims' schools and their home­towns. Password protection on the e-mail accounts would use standard questions such as ZIP code, date of birth or school mascot. Once Vance had control of an e-mail ac­count, he would go to Face­book, pretend he forgot the password and have Facebook send a link to the victims' compromised e-mail account.

Victim relieved
Vance threatened to expose embarrassing details he learned if he didn't get nude photos.

In court last week, Fortune read a letter from a 14-year-old girl who ex­pressed relief that Vance was behind bars. She said she knew that taking the nude photos was wrong, "but I just wanted my Facebook back."

Fortune said authorities passed on what they learned from Vance to programmers for the social networking sites and e-mail services. "I can't say it was as a direct result of this case, but their security questions are more sophisti­cated," Fortune said. "Face­book and Yahoo said they're going to reference this case for training purposes."

The case illustrates the need for parents to know what their children are doing, Mis­kell said.

"A lot of these kids have Fa­cebook without their parents knowing it," he said. "Parents really need to talk to their kids about this."

SOURCE

Another Cyberpath Tries to Extort His Victim

A hotshot tax attorney was busted for allegedly trying to blackmail a former lover into sending him nude photos by threatening to give her husband, neighbors and relatives what he claimed was a raunchy DVD of their past sexcapades.

Steven Klig, a partner at finance giant Deloitte, allegedly sent the woman extortionate e-mails from such locations as Disney World, where the 44-year-old married father of two was on vacation last week.

"Just to give you a head's up. I've been doing a little editing on our video. Mostly some blurring of myself so that I won't be recognized," he wrote in one e-mail, according to the criminal complaint.

"You, on the other hand, can be seen very clearly having the time of your life being f---ed by me."

Klig, of Great Neck, LI, allegedly claimed to have secretly recorded the footage during "one of our sessions," which the woman told the feds took place "a number of years ago."

Klig, who was arrested Monday on federal extortion and harassment charges, allegedly began his salacious shenanigans with a letter mailed to the unidentified woman's home last Oct. 20.

In it, he allegedly said he would turn over the DVD in exchange for a "one-time reunion" and "a couple of recent nude pictures of you."

The woman didn't respond, but instead went to the FBI after Klig allegedly e-mailed her husband on Nov. 10, using the address _robertgibbons1967 @yahoo.com and saying he was an "old friend" looking for the woman's e-mail address.

The feds then began a computerized cat-and-mouse game with Klig after they say he e-mailed the woman on Dec. 11.

The next day, an agent posing as the woman wrote Klig back, asking what he wanted and pleading, "I want to keep my family out of this."

He allegedly responded, "I don't need money. What I really want is something new to look at."

Klig then allegedly detailed his preferences for the "first installment" as:
"(1) fully clothed;
(2) without your shirt;
(3) without your shirt and pants (in just a bra and panties);
(4) without the bra and (5) fully nude."

The e-mail exchange continued through Jan. 3, with the agent offering various excuses for failing to provide the photos and Klig ultimately threatening to post the video on the Internet, investigators said.

Klig apparently tried to cover his tracks by using public computers and free or hijacked wireless Internet access to contact his victim, sources said.

Klig, free on $200,000 bond, is currently "on leave" from Deloitte, a spokeswoman said.

His lawyer did not return a phone call yesterday, and a woman who spoke from behind the door at Klig's home said, "There's no one here by that name."

ORIGINAL ARTICLE