State department worker accused of ‘sextortion’ arrested in Atlanta

Federal agents arrested a State Department employee flying out of Atlanta this week and charged him with running a massive “sextortion” scam claiming he stole sexually explicit photos of young women from their Internet accounts and then blackmailed them for more sexual photos and videos.

Michael C. Ford, a staffer at the American embassy in London who was visiting his parents in Alpharetta, is suspected of victimizing hundreds of young women across the nation by hacking their accounts from his State Department computer. He wanted to humiliate, torment and intimidate the women— often university sorority sisters — by threatening to post the photos online with their name and address, a prosecutor said.

He is accused of emailing the photos to at least one woman’s parents and brother, said Senior Trial Attorney Mona Sedky of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section. She flew in from Washington D.C. to oppose bond for Ford at a hearing Thursday in federal court in Atlanta. The women fear Ford would continue harassing them, she said.

She contended it was cyber crime of such magnitude that a magistrate should take the unusual step in federal court of not setting a bond. Magistrate E. Clayton Scofield, however, rebuffed the contention Ford posed such a continual threat to the emotional well-being of young women that he should remain locked up until his trial or plea.

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-department-worker-accused-of-sextortion-has-/nmLgK/