Calif. man gets 4 years for stalking on Facebook

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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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