July 8, 2009 in City

Police say teen hacker sought nude pictures

Extortion suspect allegedly locked women out of Web sites
Associated Press
 

At a glance

Rumormongering more common

The president of a Canada-based nonprofit called Bullying.org said hijacking someone’s account and blackmailing that person has happened before but is not common. More common are direct threats from text messages, e-mails or the creation of a Web page to spread lies or rumors about victims, said Bill Belsey, a middle school teacher and president of Bullying.org.

The National Crime Prevention Council, along with Belsey’s Web site, urge Internet users to change passwords regularly and not share personal account information.

PORTLAND – Oregon State Police say two female college students report being locked out of their social networking sites by a hacker who demanded nude photographs.

A 16-year-old Clackamas, Ore., youth is accused in the case.

The Oregonian reported that the high school student is expected to face computer crime and theft by extortion charges in Clackamas County Juvenile Court.

One of the 18-year-old women attends Oregon State University, the other Washington State University.

State police say the 16-year-old boy grew up within blocks of the two women.

Senior Trooper Randy Westbrook says the boy admitted hacking into the MySpace and Facebook pages when he was confronted by police, saying it was a prank.

“I explained to him, hacking into someone’s computer and trying to extort anything from someone is pretty serious,” Westbrook said.

The trooper sent subpoenas to the social networking sites, tracing e-mails sent by the hacker and eventually obtaining the address of the 16-year-old.

The Clackamas teen said he had guessed the victims’ passwords, Westbrook said.

The OSU student called police May 6 to report receiving five e-mails over a two-day period from someone who claimed to have taken over her MySpace and Facebook pages.

The e-mails said the only way she could regain control of her social-networking pages would be to send nude photographs of herself, Westbrook said.

When she didn’t respond, another e-mail arrived requesting photos of her bare feet.

Westbrook then learned that a friend of the OSU victim, the young woman at WSU, had received similar e-mails and couldn’t connect to her MySpace and Facebook pages either.

The women were relieved to find out who was responsible, police said.

© Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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