Fergie's Tech Blog

Two New York Teens Shakedown MySpace

An AP newswire article, via The International Herald Tribune, reports that:

Two teenagers in New York State have been take into police custody on charges of illegal computer access and attempted extortion after they allegedly threatened to shake down the Web site MySpace.com unless its operators paid them $150,000, prosecutors said.

Shaun Harrison, 18, and Saverio Mondelli, 19, of Suffolk County, allegedly hacked into the popular social networking site and stole personal information from MySpace users.

After MySpace banned them from the site, the pair threatened to distribute a foolproof method for stealing information unless MySpace paid them $150,000, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. MySpace is based in Santa Monica, California.

Mondelli and Harrison were arrested Friday when they traveled to Los Angeles, allegedly to collect the payoff. Instead, they were taken into custody by undercover officers from the multi- agency Electronic Crimes Task Force, who posed as MySpace employees. Each was charged with two felony counts of illegal computer access and one count of sending a threatening letter for extortion and attempted extortion. They face more than four years in prison if convicted of all charges, prosecutors said.

posted by Fergie @ 5/25/2006 03:02:00 PM