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Cyber Stalker/Hacker Nets 2 Years
A Southern California man who already served federal time for hacking into Lexis-Nexis has begun a state prison term for allegedly using his skills to try and extort phone sex from an internet celebrity.
Jeffrey Robert Weinberg, 23, pleaded no contest to a single count of computer intrusion in May, and was sentenced to two years in prison. He was transferred to California's Tehachapi state prison on Thursday.
Weinberg was arrested by LAPD detectives in Southern California in January, following a weeks-long police investigation aided by victim Amor Hilton -- a teenage MySpace user who had a popular video streaming show on Stickam.com.
According a blog post by Hilton prior to Weinberg's arrest, she found herself locked out of her MySpace account on December 28, the same day she began receiving harassing phone calls from a hacker calling himself "V.I.P." -- a handle used by Weinberg in the past. The calls continued over the course of several days, and often took a threatening tone, she says.
During that time, the hacker allegedly disconnected Hilton's cellphone account, and took over her account on Stickam. He allegedly demanded phone sex and nude photos from Hilton.
Hilton reported the harassment to the police, and recorded one of the phone calls. Weinberg was arrested after Hilton matched his mug shot to a photo the hacker had sent her.
A charge of attempted extortion, and four other charges, were dropped in the plea deal. But when his state prison term ends, Weinberg is expected to be transferred to federal custody for a hearing on whether he violated the conditions of his supervised release.
Weinberg was sentenced (.pdf) to 10 months in prison in December 2006 for hacking the Lexis-Nexis owned consumer database Accurint, and was released last November to begin three years of federal supervised release. Under the conditions of his supervision, he had to submit to random inspections of his computer hard drive, and was forbidden from possessing or using encryption software, among other restrictions. Committing a new crime is also considered a violation.
"What happens is, after he does his two years state prison, which starts from the time I arrested him in January, then he has to go … face the judge for his violation of federal probation," says LAPD Detective Eric Jones. "They won't do that until he's just about ready to get out of federal prison." A Southern California man who already served federal time for hacking into Lexis-Nexis has begun a state prison term for allegedly usi... more -
Stalker sends sex video to victim, whilst she's reporting him to police
A 27-year-old man filmed himself masturbating and then sent it to his victim's mobile phone, unfortunately for him, she just happened to be at her local police station reporting him for stalking.
A police officer told a court that, "the victim answered the call to find Baker again masturbating himself and she showed the officer taking her statement." The video was enough to prosecute him, landing him with a $3000 fine. A 27-year-old man filmed himself masturbating and then sent it to his victim's mobile phone, unfortunately for him, she just happ... more -
Japan man stalks toll-free line to hear woman's voice
" A Japanese man was arrested for calling a food company's toll-free number 500 times in 16 months because he wanted to hear the woman's voice on the automated tape, police said on Monday.
The 38-year-old plumber, who was arrested on Sunday, made 3,100 hours worth of free calls to the company, costing it almost 4 million yen (19,500 pounds) in phone bills, a police spokesman in Takasaki, northwest of Tokyo, said." " A Japanese man was arrested for calling a food company's toll-free number 500 times in 16 months because he wanted to hear... more -
Smiley Face killers may be stalking college men
At the age of 21, Christopher Jenkins appeared to have everything going for him. The University of Minnesota senior was good looking, had a near perfect grade point average and a future in business.
Christopher Jenkins, 21, vanished on Halloween in 2002. Four years later, police ruled his death a homicide.
Then, suddenly, he vanished.
He was last seen celebrating Halloween at a bar in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2002. Jenkins' friends said he left around midnight. Four months later, his body was found in the Mississippi River, still wearing his Halloween costume.
Minneapolis police classified the drowning as accidental.
Jenkins' blood-alcohol level was well above the legal limit and police told his parents that he'd likely had too much to drink after bar hopping with friends. They thought he'd either fallen into the river.
Despite a lack of evidence, his parents, Steve and Jan Jenkins, insisted there had been foul play.
"He was loaded into a vehicle, a van, driven around, and eventually murdered," Jan Jenkins told CNN. "He was murdered and thrown away like a piece of trash."
Hundreds of miles away, Kevin Gannon, a retired detective with the New York City Police Department, was investigating the mysterious deaths of several college men from New York state. Each of the deaths had been ruled an accidental drowning. Video Watch how clusters of drowning deaths raise suspicion »
In 2006, nearly four years after Jenkins died, there was a break in the case. A tip from a man in jail, described by Minneapolis police as a witness or suspect, caused police to change Jenkins' cause of death from "unexplained drowning" to a homicide.
It was a lucky break for Gannon. He had promised the parents of Patrick McNeill that he wouldn't quit until he'd found out how the Fordham University student died. McNeill's body washed up in the East River, two months after he left a bar in New York City.
Gannon enlisted the help of another former NYPD officer, Anthony Duarte, when Christopher Jenkins' cause of death was changed from an "unexplained drowning" to homicide. In 2003, the two investigators traveled to Minneapolis to investigate Jenkins' death.
They learned about the string of student drowning deaths, many of them involving young men who attended colleges along the Interstate 94 corridor in the Midwest -- in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.
Nine of the deceased attended the University of LaCrosse, in Wisconsin. Three attended colleges in New York state. In all, the investigators say they've connected the bizarre drowning deaths of at least 40 college-aged men across the country.
The two detectives believe that in each case -- and in others they investigated -- the men were drugged, and then their bodies were slipped or tossed into the water to make it appear as if they'd drowned.
Why would the killer or killers put the bodies in the water? The effect of water on evidence makes for an almost perfect crime, Duarte said. Not only does it make it appear like a drowning instead of a murder -- but the water frequently washes away key pieces of evidence such as fingerprints and hair fibers so the killer can't be identified.
Together, the two detectives began mapping out the drowning deaths and working the case backwards. Instead of focusing on where the bodies had surfaced, they used GPS devices and tracked river flow patterns and water levels to figure out where the bodies entered the water. At the age of 21, Christopher Jenkins appeared to have everything going for him. The University of Minnesota senior was good looking, ... more -
Halo Stalker Gets PWNED
A 20-year old male was arrested in Spokane, Washington this past weekend for stalking a 15-year old girl he met online playing Halo (the report does not specify which iteration). The accused was from Saratoga Springs, New York, which he drove around 2,600 miles in order to drive past the girl's house and send her a text message.
According to Seattle news outlet KOMO-TV, the parents of the girl caught his license plate number as he passed and called the police. He has been charged with a felony count of stalking. Let this be yet another warning to all online gamers out there: don't give out your personal information, including where you live and your phone number. A 20-year old male was arrested in Spokane, Washington this past weekend for stalking a 15-year old girl he met online playing Halo (t... more
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