New NCG Report To Examine Cyberstalking
Posted on Saturday, 23 of August , 2008 at 1:19 pm
A newscaster with a CBS affiliate in Philadelphia has pleaded guilty to federal charges related to him hacking into his co-anchor’s computer to read her e-mail.
Larry Mendte, 51, is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 4 on a charge of illegally accessing a computer and faces up to five years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
Mendte accessed his co-worker’s personal e-mail account in an effort to try and embarrass her, sending details of her personal e-mails to the New York Post using what he thought was an untraceable e-mail address.
In 2004, James R. Murphy, 38, of Columbia, SC, was sentenced to five years of probation, 500 hours of community service and ordered to pay over $12,000 in restitution after pleaded guilty to two counts of Use of a Telecommunications Device (the internet) with Intent to Annoy, Abuse, Threaten and Harass.
He had been indicted in April 2004 on 26 felony counts for sending harassing emails to a Seattle, Wash., resident. He had tormented the woman for some six years with cruel and obscene anonymous e-mails. He posed as her in various chat rooms, gave out her work and home phone numbers, he used her name with links to porn sites and engaged in spreading lies and defamation against her.
Each felony count carries a penalty of up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
In addition to federal charges, he was also charged under state identity theft laws. The case became the first in the country to be prosecuted under an amendment to the federal telecommunications law and spawned a new state law banning cyberstalking.
Cyberstalking and computer intrusion is becoming more and more prevalent. Beginning next week, The North Country Gazette will present a series of articles regarding cyberstalking, the handling of such complaints by law enforcement agencies such as the Computer Crimes unit of the New York State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and how local prosecutors such as the Warren County district attorney’s office handle such complaints.
Although computer crimes including computer intrusions, harassment and threats by email are increasing in frequency, the Warren County Sheriff’s Department has no computer crime unit. In fact, when one of their own people hacked into the department computer, he wasn’t arrested or even disciplined. That incident will also be the subject of the upcoming NCG report.
For more than a year, The North Country Gazette and its publisher have been the subject of cyberstallking and computer intrusions and so far, although the Warren County District Attorney’s office and the New York State Police are aware of at least two of the individuals involved, including one who is a government employee, there have been no arrests.
One individual has been identified as having sent over 500 harassing messages to The North Country Gazette in the past year, including at least one bomb threat, numerous messages relating to death and other repeated threats. Virtually all of the messages and emails have been traceable.
There have been numerous thefts of computer data files from the North Country Gazette including e-mail files as well as statistical and other data files, some of which have been illegally published on another website. One individual is using both the name of the publisher and the business in an identity theft and has not only published email addresses and telephone numbers and other personal information concerning the publisher but has used that information to promote spam and signup for unwanted newsletters.
Effective January 2006, it became a federal crime to attempt to annoy someone anonymously over the Internet. It fact, it’s a federal crime to post to the Internet any obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy or indecent, with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person.
In New York State, as well as most other states, there are specific laws dealing with computer intrusion, stalking, computer tampering and theft of computer data. Identity theft laws come into play when the identity theft is done with the intent to commit another crime: stalking.
Anybody who uses the Internet to post or e-mail any comment, request, suggestion, proposal, image, or other communication which is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, or indecent, with the intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass another person has just committed a Federal crime, for which they can be imprisoned, fined, or both.
The series starts next week for paid subscribers. Watch for it. 8-23-08
Don’t forget to subscribe to the NCG Daily Digest, delivered daily to your inbox. Selected special investigative reports, including the forthcoming one on cyberstalking, and commentaries are now available only to paid subscribers. See the ad at our home page for details. For additional info, contact news@northcountrygazette.org
Category: Consumers, Courts, Crime, Government, Internet, Media, New York State, Police, Warren County
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