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Revenge Porn Kingpin Hunter Moore Nabbed By FBI
Hunter Moore was arrested by the FBI (Photo via Hunter Moore's Instagram)
The FBI arrested the man who ran the notorious but now-defunct "revenge porn" website isanyoneup.com and his associate.
Hunter Moore, 27 is the kingpin behind the website that posted naked photos and videos of people, many without their consent, and included links to their Facebook and Twitter accounts. (Shudder. Our worst nightmare.) Even BBC News called Moore "the net's most hated man."
He and his partner-in-crime, 25-year-old Charles Evens, were arrested this morning, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office. They were charged in a 15-count felony indictment unsealed by the U.S. District Court in L.A, including suspicion of conspiracy, seven counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information and seven counts of aggravated identity theft.
Moore took down his isanyoneup.com website back in April 2012 because of the "legal drama" he was facing, he wrote on his website, and it now directs to anti-bullying group site Bullyville.com. (He might have also put an end to his posting after one pissed-off female victim stabbed him in his shoulder with a ballpoint pen at his house.) Even Facebook banned Moore for life as well as his 40-pound cat, Alan, according to Rolling Stone.
Moore's site wasn't just a clearinghouse for pictures sent by vengeful exes. The indictment claims Moore would get Evens to hack into victims' email accounts to find even more photos. He would pay Evens for those photos through Paypal and post them on his site—without consent. Investigators discovered this through email exchanges between the two that discussed the hacking.
The Awl wrote in 2011 that Moore hit 30 million page views a month and made up to $13,000 a month from it. However, the monthly amounts would vary and the server already cost $8,000 a month to begin with. Rolling Stone reported a higher amount, as much as $30,000 a month.
"How it started was I was having sex with this girl who was engaged to this kind of semifamous band guy, and all my friends wanted to see her naked because she was so cute," Moore told Rolling Stone. When he posted the photos on a domain and got a ton of page views, he thought, "Holy shit, I could make money doing this."
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Moore and Evens could face up to five years in federal prison for each of the conspiracy and computer hacking counts. In addition, if convicted of the aggravated identity theft charge, there's a mandatory two-year sentence to run consecutive to any other sentence they get.
Moore's last tweet before he was arrested referenced the other big story of the day:
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
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