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Man running revenge porn site convicted, facing up to 20 years

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F

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
Too bad, so sad.

SAN DIEGO - A San Diego man charged with running a so-called revenge porn website where people posted nude pictures of their ex-lovers - and then charging the victims to take down the images - was convicted Monday of 27 felony charges.

Kevin Bollaert, 28, was found guilty Monday of identity theft and extortion. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

The San Diego County Superior Court jury was unable to reach verdicts on two charges of identity theft and conspiracy and a judge declared a mistrial on the counts.

It was believed to be the first conviction of a revenge porn website operator, although two months a Los Angeles man who posted a topless photo of his ex-girlfriend on Facebook was sentenced to a year in jail for violating California's new revenge porn law.

That law wasn't used against Ballaert.

...

Prosecutors said that in 2012 and 2013, Bollaert allowed people to anonymously post more than 10,000 images, mainly of women, on his now-defunct ugotposted.com website without the knowledge of those in the pictures. The victims' names, cities where they lived and other information such as links to their Facebook profiles also were posted, authorities alleged.

Bollaert also ran another now-defunct website, changemyreputation.com, where victims could go and be charged up to $350 to have the images removed.

Prosecutors said he earned tens of thousands of dollars from the scheme.

More than two dozen people were named as victims in the criminal complaint. Some testified at trial that they suffered humiliation and fear when their private photos were posted and prosecutor Tawnya Austin told jurors that they also were harassed by people who tried to contact them through Facebook or by email.

"It ruined my life and I'm still going through it," testified one woman, who said she was thrown out of her home after her nude photos were posted. "I lost my family. They think that I brought shame on them. My reputation is ruined."
Click to expand...

a10tLiU.gif
 
W

wwm0nkey

Member
Good.

Last I heard he said it was because he was pro GG or something stupid.

Edit: wrong guy, but it's still good this man will be getting time in jail.
 
C

Chumly

Member
Disgusting. He even charged people money to remove the info....... He deserves to rot in prison. He clearly knew what he was doing and had an active plan to do widespread extortion.
 
R

Run

Banned
Fucking scum, this is great news, seriously, these sites are just a consistent assault on women and these people should be shamed and ruined.
 
I

ICKE

Banned
The victims' names, cities where they lived and other information such as links to their Facebook profiles also were posted, authorities alleged.

Bollaert also ran another now-defunct website, changemyreputation.com, where victims could go and be charged up to $350 to have the images removed.
Click to expand...

What a piece of trash, are you kidding me?

Why was this website allowed to exist even for a day? I don't understand why it is so hard for authorities to react in these situations?
 
G

GreekWolf

Member
Any conceivable way to trace the criminals who illegally uploaded the nude pics and put them in prison as well? They are every bit as responsible of committing a crime as the idiot who created the website.
 
B

Blader

Member
I wouldn't have thought of identity theft and extortion as charges for something like this, but lo and behold, that's exactly what it is:

The victims' names, cities where they lived and other information such as links to their Facebook profiles also were posted, authorities alleged.

Bollaert also ran another now-defunct website, changemyreputation.com, where victims could go and be charged up to $350 to have the images removed.

Prosecutors said he earned tens of thousands of dollars from the scheme.
Click to expand...

That's pretty fucked.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Chainsawkitten said:
Even if revenge porn wasn't illegal, this thing would still fall under extortion.
Click to expand...

Yeah this conviction seems like a situation where you wouldn't have nabbed the guy for the revenge porn stuff, but he had a much easier crime to charge for—running two sites like that is pretty cut-and-dried extortion.
 
Ray Wonder

Ray Wonder

Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
These sites are fucked up. I hope all of them suffer the same fate as this guy.
 
K

kmax

Member
Fuchsdh said:
Yeah this conviction seems like a situation where you wouldn't have nabbed the guy for the revenge porn stuff, but he had a much easier crime to charge for—running two sites like that is pretty cut-and-dried extortion.
Click to expand...

I think you're correct. I remember when there was another dude who had a revenge porn site, but the authorities couldn't do anything since he wasn't extorting anyone for money.

It's pretty fucked up.
 
V

Volimar

Member
I hate that there was even a market for this. People love looking at other peoples private pictures and videos. Personally I think posting a partners nude or explicit image without their consent should land you on a special tier of registered sex offenders so that when potential partners google you they are warned of the danger.
 
R

Run

Banned
Wow, okay GG, hmmm just opened up a new can of worms here. Quick google search and I'm like what the fuuuuuck, ugh seriously?

I been outta the loop.
 
N

neorej

ERMYGERD!
Digusting that such a site could even exist. Some scum are willing to profit off anything. I read an article about someone who uploaded nudies of his ex in an emotional moment, he was angry at her and wanted to hurt her. After he realised how disproportionate his reaction was, he asked for the pics to be taken down. The site-owner refused. It's disgusting.
 
B

Barrylocke

Member
I've heard that a good percentage of the pics on /r/GoneWild are essentially revenge porn. It's a pretty disgusting practice, and I imagine it's on the rise now that it's almost effortless to take pics and vids of yourself and share them.
 
F

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
Barrylocke said:
I've heard that a good percentage of the pics on /r/GoneWild are essentially revenge porn. It's a pretty disgusting practice, and I imagine it's on the rise now that it's almost effortless to take pics and vids of yourself and share them.
Click to expand...

/r/GoneWild's optional verification weeds out most of those. You can also easily check if those pictures were posted by an active member.
 
M

maxcriden

Member
That reminds me, there was a story about this topic on NPR/The Takeaway yesterday:

Given the realities of the internet today, Congresswoman Speier says legislation to stop revenge porn is necessary and urgent. "There are hundreds and hundreds of cases, maybe thousands of cases, where this is destroying peoples lives," she explains.
Click to expand...

More here:

Being a Woman Online: Rep. Jackie Speier's Plan to Combat Revenge Porn

It sounds like they plan to discuss Gamergate, too.
 
F

FunkyPajamas

Member
vikki said:
Despicable and illegal in California now, right? I mean the revenge porn.
Click to expand...

I think what got him in trouble was demanding money of his exes to get the pictures down (i.e. extortion). Not that the whole thing isn't disgusting, but I think only the extortion part is illegal.

Oh, wow, nevermind, I re-read the OP and saw the "California's new revenge porn law". Man, kudos to CA for doing this. I didn't know it was in effect.
 
W

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
It's so nice to see how the law in regards to technology can sometimes result in good things for society, too. The guy deserves every year he spends in jail.
 
A

And_Gignac

Member
"It ruined my life and I'm still going through it," testified one woman, who said she was thrown out of her home after her nude photos were posted. "I lost my family. They think that I brought shame on them. My reputation is ruined."
Click to expand...

Ok? While i agree what he did was horrible and deserves a punishment, this is even more worrisome to me. How can we still live in a society where exposing graphical evidence of a female doing something we all do and enjoy doing (sex) can lead to such dramatic consequences? Are we in the Victorian Era still? So gross.
 
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