14 DAY TRIAL // Hunter Moore, the operator of the notorious IsAnyoneUp.com revenge site, has been arrested by the FBI. He’s being accused of paying a hacker to breach email accounts to obtain racy photos that were posted on the website.
According to the FBI, both Moore, 27, and the man he allegedly paid to get him the photographs, 25-year-old Charles Evens, have been charged with one count of conspiracy, seven counts of aggravated identity theft, and seven counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information. Evens has also been arrested.
Moore often attempted to defend his website, arguing that he was only trying to educate people on technology. He has also blamed the individuals whose raunchy pictures appeared on his website, saying that they shouldn’t have taken the photos in the first place.
In April 2012, he sold IsAnyoneUp.com to anti-bullying group BullyVille.
However, authorities appear to be more concerned about how Moore and Evens obtained some of the pictures posted on the controversial website.
Some of the pictures were submitted by users. However, in order to populate the site with even more content, Moore is said to have instructed Evens to hack into the email accounts of his victims to obtain racy photos.
Evens is believed to have hacked hundreds of email accounts. Moore allegedly paid him in exchange for the photos stolen from the compromised accounts.
If convicted, the two face up to 5 years in prison for each computer hacking and conspiracy count. In addition, they can get a two-year consecutive sentence for the aggravated identity theft charges.
The indictment obtained by Wired shows the email communications between Evens and Moore. It appears that Evens started hacking into email accounts in December 2011. Six of the targeted accounts named in the indictment are on Google and one on Yahoo.