Perverts dig webcam spy software: the price is prison

Written on 7th August 2008                                                                                                              2 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Ever since the webcam became a popular product, some guys have tried to get girls nude in front of the camera. Sometimes they succeeded. Almost every high school has that one girl of who everybody knows how she looks naked, since some ex boyfriend couldn’t resist to send some of the pics to his friends. Back then, you could say the girl was naive and, frankly, quite stupid. Yet recently, some techie perverts install webcam spy software on girl’s laptops. So did a student from the University of Florida. The 23-year old made more than 20.000 pics of ten girls, most of them in state of undress.

He wrote the software himself and allegedly installed it when girls asked help when they had computer problems. Some of them noticed a light blinking sometimes, but didn’t realize this was their webcam.

The secret fantasies of the American student do have a price though. Now that he got caught, he faces possible felony charges – which means he might end up in prison.

On our side of the Atlantic ocean, a similar case occurred. A 22-year old Dutchman was sentenced to thirty months of prison, of which 12 months on probation, for fornication sexually harassing nine young girls via their webcams. He hacked the cam of the under-aged girls by sending infected photographs.