MyCrimeSpace

Two MySpace hackers arrested

by Trench on August 16th, 2006

Two teens arrested in MySpace hack:
Two Setauket teens have been arrested for hacking into an acquaintance’s MySpace account and posting sexually derogatory images and comments on her Web page, Suffolk police said Tuesday.

Edward Woltin, 19, and Mark Branciforte, 18, allegedly sent an 18-year-old girl a bogus e-mail in June saying there was another MySpace user who had a similar page with her information and pictures on it. They could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Det. Sgt. John Cowie, chief of the Suffolk computer crimes section, said the girl clicked on a link the e-mail provided, which sent her to a Web page that looked like a MySpace log-in. Once she entered her password, the teens were able to obtain it and use it to log into her real account.

“She realized shortly after that that she couldn’t get into her account,” Cowie said. Soon friends told her that inappropriate photographs and comments that appeared to come from her were being posted on her page.

Among the images was a photo of a NuvaRing, a female contraceptive device, along with derogatory remarks about it. Cowie said the teens wanted to embarrass the girl, but could not say why they were upset with her.

The girl’s name is being withheld by police.

Suffolk’s computer crimes section was able to trace the transactions back to Woltin and Branciforte’s homes. Woltin was arrested on Friday and Branciforte was arrested on Monday. Each was charged with computer tampering in the fourth degree and unauthorized use of a computer.

I couldn’t find a MySpace for Branciforte but I did find Edward Woltin’s MySpace.

From what I understand the Suffolk County computer crimes division doesn’t fool around.

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POSTED IN: Security