Compliance Management, Threat Management, Privacy

Michigan man sentenced to 262 months for cyberstalking, child porn

A New Baltimore, Mich., man was sentenced to 262 months in prison for cyberstalking and producing child pornography, according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) release.

U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara also put James S. Allen, 38, under 10 years of supervision after he serves his sentence. Arcara was found guilty of using the internet and text messaging to stalk and interact with 18 female victims in New York State between April and August in 2012. He also threatened the victims, many of whom were minors, in his attempts to get pornographic photos of them.

Allen would contact the victims saying he had found naked photos of them online, then he would point them toward a website, supposedly to see the picture. But the redirect was to a phishing site that Allen used to try to get a victim's private email address and login information.

When the victims input information at the site, Allen would then commandeer their email accounts, then push them to Skype with him by threatening to release the naked photos online. When they agreed to Skype with Allen, who used the screen name “shhh.shhh,” he would prompt them to disrobe and “engage in sexual conduct, with the additional threat that naked pictures of them would be sent out to all of Western New York” if they didn't comply, the release said, noting that “the defendant's repeated and sustained harassment” cause many of the victims to suffer “substantial emotional distress.”

U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. called the case “shocking” and said it “demonstrates how technology can make our children more vulnerable than ever to predators,” according to the release. “Parents, children, and in fact any who use Internet-based media, need to know how to protect themselves from those inhabiting this virtual world,” he said.

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