THE PROVINCE
Friday, June 11, 2004
Sex cyberstalker took over girl's computer
Mounties say case shows depravity of skilled hackers
By Randy Boswell
CanWest News Service
The RCMP says a bizarre case of sexual extortion over the Internet involving an alleged British cyber-stalker & a 14-year-old Manitoba girl highlights the perverse new ways that chatrooms are being used by deeply depraved but highly skilled hackers to recruit victims.
Before she realzied what was happening during an exchange w/someone she thought was a male teenager from somewhere in Canada, the Mb. girl was being coerced by a British man to send him nude photos of herself or risk the destruction of her computer & embarrassment in front of all her friends.
The incident came to light in February when Winnipeg police were approached by a family from rural Manitoba, according to RCMP Chief Supt. Kevin Vickers.
"A young girl was talking to who she thought was a young boy," he says. "He sent her a picture, allegedly of himself, but when she opened that picture up electronically, he actually had control of her computer. He had a mirror image of her computer screen on his screen."
What happened next was a nightmare sceneraio for parents worried about the security of the Internet for their children.
"He told this young girl that, 'If you don't take an electronic picture of your breast & send it to me, I'm going to crash your computer," says Vickers. "She writes a little e-mail back to him & says, 'Yeah, right. You're crazy.' He writes back & says: 'Well, take a look @your CD-ROM drawer."
As the astonished girl watched, her correspondent made clear that his threat was real & that he had already gained control of her computer.
"So she looks @the CD-ROM drawer & - - zip, zip - - it opens & closes," Vickers recounts. "He says, 'Now I'm going to crash your computer if you don't send me a picture of your breast.' "
The girl, he says, was stunned by the man's control over her machine.
"She's 14 years old, from a middle-class family, & her initial reaction - she cries, she panics, she doesn't know what to do - she sends him an electronic picture of her breast."
But her compliance played into the man's hands & only fuelled his appetite.
"He comes right back & now she sees the mouse on her screen moving around, sees the mouse going up & clicking on her e-mail address book, & he highlights every person in there & says, 'I'm now going to send them all a picture of your breast if you don't send me a complete picture of your body,' " says Vickers.
Finally, he says, she realizes the seriousness of the situation & "unplugs her computer & goes crying to her mom & dad."
They contacted Winnipeg police, who called in the RCMP's Internet suveillance experts to help track down the culprit. The man sending messages to Manitoba was identified as someone from Britain.
W/help from the London-based National Crime Squad - an RCMP partner in a Virtual Gloabal Taskforce aimed at combatting Internet crimes v.s. children - British police tracked down the man's address in a town in the Midlands region of Britian.
A warrant was issued, the man was arrested & he now faces extortion charges in a British court.
WOW
carlotta
Friday, June 11, 2004
Sex cyberstalker took over girl's computer
Mounties say case shows depravity of skilled hackers
By Randy Boswell
CanWest News Service
The RCMP says a bizarre case of sexual extortion over the Internet involving an alleged British cyber-stalker & a 14-year-old Manitoba girl highlights the perverse new ways that chatrooms are being used by deeply depraved but highly skilled hackers to recruit victims.
Before she realzied what was happening during an exchange w/someone she thought was a male teenager from somewhere in Canada, the Mb. girl was being coerced by a British man to send him nude photos of herself or risk the destruction of her computer & embarrassment in front of all her friends.
The incident came to light in February when Winnipeg police were approached by a family from rural Manitoba, according to RCMP Chief Supt. Kevin Vickers.
"A young girl was talking to who she thought was a young boy," he says. "He sent her a picture, allegedly of himself, but when she opened that picture up electronically, he actually had control of her computer. He had a mirror image of her computer screen on his screen."
What happened next was a nightmare sceneraio for parents worried about the security of the Internet for their children.
"He told this young girl that, 'If you don't take an electronic picture of your breast & send it to me, I'm going to crash your computer," says Vickers. "She writes a little e-mail back to him & says, 'Yeah, right. You're crazy.' He writes back & says: 'Well, take a look @your CD-ROM drawer."
As the astonished girl watched, her correspondent made clear that his threat was real & that he had already gained control of her computer.
"So she looks @the CD-ROM drawer & - - zip, zip - - it opens & closes," Vickers recounts. "He says, 'Now I'm going to crash your computer if you don't send me a picture of your breast.' "
The girl, he says, was stunned by the man's control over her machine.
"She's 14 years old, from a middle-class family, & her initial reaction - she cries, she panics, she doesn't know what to do - she sends him an electronic picture of her breast."
But her compliance played into the man's hands & only fuelled his appetite.
"He comes right back & now she sees the mouse on her screen moving around, sees the mouse going up & clicking on her e-mail address book, & he highlights every person in there & says, 'I'm now going to send them all a picture of your breast if you don't send me a complete picture of your body,' " says Vickers.
Finally, he says, she realizes the seriousness of the situation & "unplugs her computer & goes crying to her mom & dad."
They contacted Winnipeg police, who called in the RCMP's Internet suveillance experts to help track down the culprit. The man sending messages to Manitoba was identified as someone from Britain.
W/help from the London-based National Crime Squad - an RCMP partner in a Virtual Gloabal Taskforce aimed at combatting Internet crimes v.s. children - British police tracked down the man's address in a town in the Midlands region of Britian.
A warrant was issued, the man was arrested & he now faces extortion charges in a British court.
WOW
carlotta
