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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A California man who trolled women’s
Facebook pages searching for clues that allowed him to take over
their email accounts was sentenced Friday to more than four years
in state prison after a judge rejected a plea for a lighter
sentence and likened the man to a peeping Tom.
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Once he took over women’s email accounts, George Bronk searched
their folders for nude or semi-nude photographs or videos sent to
their husbands or boyfriends and distributed the images to their
contact list, prosecutors said.
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The emails went to families, friends and coworkers. Women in 17
states, the District of Columbia and England were
victimized.
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“This case serves as a stark example of what occurs in so-called
cyberspace. It has very real consequences,” Sacramento County
Superior Court Judge Lawrence Brown said. “The intrusion of one’s
profile is no different than intruding one’s home.”
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Bronk, 23, pleaded guilty in January to charges that included
computer intrusion, false impersonation and possession of child
pornography.
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Brown sentenced him to four years in state prison for the charges
related to the Facebook and email offenses, and added eight more
months for charges related to child pornography.
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Bronk’s attorney, Monica Lynch, said her client took responsibility
for his actions and showed remorse. She had sought a sentence of
one year in local jail with probation afterward, or two years in
state prison with no probation.
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Brown based his decision on a sentencing recommendation by the
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
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Bronk was living in the Sacramento suburb of Citrus Heights with
his parents in December 2009 when he began scanning Facebook with
the intent of taking over email accounts. The practice continued
until last September.
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Prosecutors said he looked for email accounts on Facebook pages
then gleaned enough personal information from postings to answer
basic Internet security questions, such as the name of their
elementary school or favorite color.
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After he changed passwords and took over accounts, Bronk would
search folders for compromising photos and distribute them
publicly.
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He taunted some of the women in online exchanges and coerced at
least one woman into sending him more explicit photographs by
threatening to distribute the pictures he already had.
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Danielle Piscak, 22, of Parkland, Wash., told The Associated Press
earlier this year that she was able to contact the person who had
hacked into her email account and asked him why he was doing it.
She said Bronk’s reply was, “Because it’s funny.”
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The case illustrates the vulnerability of all Internet users, said
prosecuting attorney Robert Morgester with the state attorney
general’s office.
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“The victims we went to said I had very robust passwords. But it
didn’t matter how robust the password was if the recovery question
is easy,” he said. “Lost your password? What’s your favorite color
or what high school did you go to? Or what’s your dog’s name? And
he was able to glean that information from social
media.”
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