A Long Island police officer seeking revenge against a former girlfriend hacked into the woman’s e-mail account, assumed her identity at an on-line dating service and contacted 70 men, inviting some of them for rendezvous at the woman’s home, prosecutors charged in a 197-count indictment, Newsday reports. The woman discovered the scheme when male strangers began appearing at her house, saysing she had solicited their visits via Match.com. Officer Michael Valentine, 28, was charged with stalking, computer tampering, aggravated harassment, and other crimes. “This is cyber terrorism,” said Suffolk Police Commissioner Richard Dormer, saying the woman told investigators she feared for her life.
Prosecutors said Valentine’s revenge scheme began in November after a six-week relationship that the couple began on Match.com ended. Valentine was no computer whiz. He made the lucky guess that his former girlfriend had chosen as a password the name of her German shepherd. “It didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure this out,” said one official. “A lesson could be learned here and it’s ‘don’t use your dog’s name as a password.'”
Link: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-licop0403,0,2465212.story?coll=ny-top-headlines