SAN DIEGO – On February 2, 2015, a San Diego man who ran a “revenge porn” website allowing people to post nude pictures of their ex-lovers, and who made tens of thousands of dollars from victims who paid him to take the images down, was found guilty on 21 counts of identity theft and six counts of extortion.
“This case was the result of a six-month investigation by California Department of Justice (DOJ) special agents,” said Alan Barcelona, president of the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association (CSLEA) which represents DOJ special agents along with nearly 7,000 law enforcement, public safety and consumer protection professionals who work for the State of California. “This website operator provided a tool for hurtful people to seek revenge from those who broke up with them, humiliating the victims by posting sexually explicit photos online for the whole world to see. Then, this same man would gladly accept $350 dollars from the victims to remove the photos. That’s pure extortion, pure evil.”
DOJ special agents arrested Kevin Bollaert, now 28, on December 10, 2013 after discovering he allowed people to post more than 10,000 images, mostly of women, on his website, UGotPosted.com. The photos were posted from December 2, 2012 to September 17, 2013 and unlike many other revenge porn websites where the subject of the photos is anonymous, ugotposted.com required the poster to include the subject’s full name, location, age and Facebook profile link.
California Penal Code sections 530.5 and 653m (b) make it illegal to willfully obtain someone’s personal identifying information, including name, age and address, for any unlawful purpose, including with the intent to annoy or harass.
Bollaert created a second website, changemyreputation.com, which he used when individuals contacted ugotposted.com requesting that images be removed from the site. He offered to remove the content for a fee of up to $350, which could be paid using an online PayPal account.
According to court documents, Ballaert told investigators that he made around $900 per month from advertising on the site. Records obtained from his changemyreputation.com PayPal account indicate he received payments from victims totaling tens of thousandsof dollars.
Bollaert now faces up to 20 years in prison.
