Man Hacked Women's Email To Steal Naked Pictures

A California man has pled guilty to a crime one victim called “virtual rape”: he hacked into hundreds of women’s email accounts, found naked pictures, and sent them to everyone in the women’s address books.

According to Information Week, twenty-three-year-old George Samuel Bronk scoured Facebook for women whose email addresses were public. He then called their email providers, pretended he’d forgotten the password, and got it reset. Then he searched their outboxes for naked photos, and if he found them, emailed them to all the women’s contacts. In some cases he also “sextorted” the women, threatening one that he’d tell her parents about her naked pics if she didn’t send him nude video of her.

Police started investigating the case when a victim came forward — in response to an FBI request, 46 more women eventually did so. One compared Bronk’s actions to “virtual rape” — and while rape comparisons are always somewhat problematic, what Bronk did was indeed incredibly invasive and disturbing. He’s pled guilty to seven felony charges including computer intrusion and possession of child pornography, and he faces sentencing in March.