back to article Girls tricked by STEAMY message: Webcam spyware student jailed

A cyberstalking computer science student who tricked women into taking computers with hacked webcams into steamy shower rooms has been jailed for 12 months. Trevor Timothy Harwell, 21, of Fullerton in California, will be forced to spend five years on probation following his release and ordered to complete a sex offender …

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  1. Bill Neal
    Devil

    ...following his release

    indeed

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      They fell for it?

      Did they really fall for it?

      Bimbo tech!

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: They fell for it?

        I'm beginning to think the deer tick inspector who just visited and had me run around outside naked to dislodge - might not have been genuine !

  2. Aaron Em

    Well

    I'm sure this will help him get laid!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Well

      Sure it will...

      "Trevor, this is your cell mate Bubba. Bubba, this is your new plaything - enjoy."

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

        1. turnip handler
          FAIL

          Re: Well

          "The US is the only country where more men are raped than women because of assaults in American jails: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/feb/21/us-more-men-raped-than-women"

          Actually the article disagrees with that conclusion, although it admits it is an open question:

          "And I don't think it's possible to conclude from these numbers that the US is 'the first country in the history of the world to count more rapes for men than for women.'"

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Well

            "And I don't think it's possible to conclude from these numbers that the US is 'the first country in the history of the world to count more rapes for men than for women.'"

            Never heard about Lawrence of Arabia and the grand tradition of queued buggering, apparently.

            1. The Indomitable Gall

              @AC

              "Never heard about Lawrence of Arabia and the grand tradition of queued buggering, apparently."

              ...!!!

              That sounds like a NSFW websearch if ever I saw one...!

          2. wayward4now
            Boffin

            Re: Well

            I find that puzzling as there are plenty of men who will masquarade as "she-males" in prison in exchange for canteen items and money, where allowed. There will too many willing to be used, so risking a rape charge and adding more time to an active sentence would be pure crazy. I did 5 years in a state prison and never saw or heard of anyone being raped. Of course when there is no hope of getting out, like in max custody. it wouldn't be so easy to do time.

        2. Aaron Em

          Oh dear

          Those reading that Comment is Free piece might appreciate knowing that its author is the same person who, last year around this time, argued that men who aren't into cunnilingus, with rare exception, prima facie hate women.

          That aside, the CiF piece doesn't say what Matt says it does about the relative prevalence of sexual assault against men vs. women. On the other hand, the CiF piece is quite tendentious in its own right; for example, the BoJ page states that female inmates are twice as likely to report being assaulted by another inmate, but by Ms. Filipovic that means female inmates are twice as likely to be assaulted by another inmate. And, as usual, underreporting is a serious, serious problem when it comes to taking stats for assault against women at face value, but the question of whether men under-report, and by how much, doesn't even get a look in.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Bubba

        Word of advice, Trevor old son, don't drop the soap in /that/ shower. Oh the irony...

        1. Scorchio!!
          Devil

          Re: Bubba

          "Word of advice, Trevor old son, don't drop the soap in /that/ shower. Oh the irony..."

          "Trevor, when you pick up the soap look into the web cam and say cheese." (Ugh)

    2. Version 1.0 Silver badge

      Re: Well

      A far better punishment would have been to stick him naked in the steam room for a month with the web cams turned on and streaming.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What OS did he use?

    ... Steamy Windows.

    1. dogged
      Coat

      Re: What OS did he use?

      Dirty Mac OSX, to judge from the article.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "met his six identified victims through friends and *his church*"

    Oy vey!

    1. zanto
      Devil

      Re: "met his six identified victims through friends and *his church*"

      Could be Scientology. Just sayin..

    2. Armando 123
      Coat

      Re: "met his six identified victims through friends and *his church*"

      Can't be Catholic; he stalked women.

      [Oh, right, *I'm* the bad guy here.]

      1. kain preacher

        Re: "met his six identified victims through friends and *his church*"

        No no he can be catholic, he is not a priest.

  5. auburnman
    Windows

    People still take computers in for repairs? I thought we had completely divided into the "able to fix it without help" and the "chuck it in the bin and buy a new one" groups.

    1. Andus McCoatover
      Windows

      Imagine if....

      Gary Glitter had simply chucked his.

      Or if the News of the World had chucked theirs...

      Different history, I think....

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Imagine if....

        Oh yeah, PC World, Cribbs Causeway, Bristol.

        Some time later, in Horfield Prison, Bristol:

        "If you want to be in my gang, my gang, my gang... "

        1. Scorchio!!

          Re: Imagine if....

          "Some time later, in Horfield Prison, Bristol:

          "If you want to be in my gang, my gang, my gang... " "

          and "I'm the man who put the bang in gang". I realise how naive I must have seemed, singing along with this stuff with my choirboy treble. Sheeeit.

    2. JohnG

      "People still take computers in for repairs?"

      Bear in mind that "repairs" could include repairing things like "My browser has disappeared" when the user accidentally moved the corresponding desktop icon into another folder or "I can only see my old emails" when the user clicked on the date/time column header to reorder the inbox.

  6. Lord Voldemortgage
    Big Brother

    This is why

    I always wear a David Cameron mask at all times when using any camera-equipped computer.

    Try getting any "subsequent sexual gratification" from that pervboy.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Devil

      Re: This is why

      I don't know about that. My extensive collection of artistic shots of Anne Widdecombe goes down very well indeed, amongst certain sections of the community. Please check it out yourself at www.widdeporn.com, if you don't believe me...

      I'm thinking of branching out into Eric Pickles next, now that John Prescott's a bit past it...

      1. Peter Storm

        Re: This is why

        Pass the mind bleach!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: mind bleach

          Friday's tomorrow.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: This is why

          @Peter Storm: "Pass the mind bleach!"

          Oy! What's wrong with that image???!!

      2. LinkOfHyrule
        Happy

        Re: This is why

        Someone else mentioned "her" in relation to porn last week on here too - was that you too?

        I have the number of a really good therapist ;o) It's okay, I am here for you, I aint judging you.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: This is why

          Hey, just remember Anne Widdiecombe is only a couple of years older than Pamela Stephenson.

          Think on that.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: This is why

        "I'm thinking of branching out into Eric Pickles "

        That, surely, is very ill-advised?

      4. kain preacher

        Re: This is why

        Personal I prefer my Photo shopped collection of Janet Reno making out with Madeleine Albright. I tried to add thatcher but my PC kept on restarting for some strange reason.

      5. tony2heads

        Re: This is why

        Rule 34

        http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rule%2034

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: This is why

      I have.

      I did.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    pics or it didn't happen

    But seriously I can't believe they fell for that.

    I'm paranoid enough that I unplug my webcam every night just in case. And I'm a guy. The least they could have done is aimed it away from the actual shower.

    1. Alpha Tony

      @ I can't believe they fell for that

      'Harwell was able to install "CamCapture" spyware onto victims' computers in the first place because he worked part time as a computer repairman, SPECIALISING IN FIXING MACS'

      I believe it.

    2. Uplink

      Re: pics or it didn't happen

      Can't unplug a built-in webcam. You can however put the laptop lid down so all the pictures that someone might capture are black.

      But why oh why would you have your computer powered up in the shower? Even if the steam would "clean your sensor", that wouldn't require the computer to be on, would it? Think electricity and water, if anything...

      1. Aaron Em

        Re: pics or it didn't happen

        Talk of giving IT people a bad name! I hope none of y'all are on the helpdesk anywhere, because this whole "I understand how it works perfectly, what the hell's wrong with you?" attitude is exactly what puts people off.

        Would you take that kind of nonsense from your mechanic? No! Normal people shouldn't have to know what a serpentine belt is; that's what a mechanic is for. Most people think of computers in exactly the same way, and they have every right to do so, not least because it is that very perspective which justifies your existence as an IT professional. You may think you're so much smarter than everyone else that it doesn't matter what they think of you or your attitude, but you're wrong, and you ignore this fact at your peril.

        (Well, I say 'professional' -- not seeing a lot of evidence of that here, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: pics or it didn't happen @Aaron Em

          I see a lot of people who look on those who don't share their hobby or profession with contempt, but the post you are replying to is not an example of that, IMHO. There are things a mechanic could tell someone that would be obvious bollocks, even if the person has no knowledge of cars. I don't have to be a vet to know not to listen to advice from someone who tells me that cats like being kicked in the head. Not again, anyway.

          1. Aaron Em

            Re: pics or it didn't happen @Aaron Em

            Arrant hyperbole. You don't need any particular domain knowledge to understand the basic operating principles of a cat.

            1. ian 22

              Re: pics or it didn't happen @Aaron Em

              Cats have no operating principles. They are sodding bonkers and totally unpredictable.

              If you imagine you understand them, well....

            2. tony2heads
              Trollface

              Re: Cat operating system

              http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/9128cc78-b433-46e4-94e0-6d461accf183.jpg

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: pics or it didn't happen

          "Talk of giving IT people a bad name! I hope none of y'all are on the helpdesk anywhere, because this whole "I understand how it works perfectly, what the hell's wrong with you?" attitude is exactly what puts people off.

          Would you take that kind of nonsense from your mechanic? No! Normal people shouldn't have to know what a serpentine belt is; that's what a mechanic is for. Most people think of computers in exactly the same way, and they have every right to do so, not least because it is that very perspective which justifies your existence as an IT professional. You may think you're so much smarter than everyone else that it doesn't matter what they think of you or your attitude, but you're wrong, and you ignore this fact at your peril.

          (Well, I say 'professional' -- not seeing a lot of evidence of that here, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.)"

          I know mechanics, computers, electronics, plumbing, engineering, cooking, building and many other things. I like to think that does give me a right to a smug me know better attitude. I don't do it though.

          1. Aaron Em

            Really no need to copy-paste the entire comment

            Depends. I consider that smugness is only really warranted when dealing with someone who is a) incompetent at everything and b) ignorantly arrogant regardless -- which happens surprisingly often in my experience, presumably because there's a degree of incompetence below which one is not even competent to recognize one's own level of haplessness -- but even then it rarely turns out useful.

        3. Lamont Cranston

          @ Aaron Em

          If I took my car to the mechanic, and he advised that I could best fix it by, say, making sure I washed it when I was naked, I might not be too keen to take his advice.

          None of these women deserved to have their privacy invaded by the pervert in question, but a little common sense (or paying attention at school) might have saved them a lot of trouble.

          1. Rob
            Coat

            Re: @ Aaron Em

            See I'm confused now, I took my Cat to the Mechanic and he told me to 'eff off, my cat was equally unimpressed and tried to remove my face using all of it's claws.

            I don't trust the advice in this forum anymore.

        4. vic 4

          Re: Would you take that kind of nonsense from your mechanic?

          How do you think they refer to their clients when they are not there? Say in th epub on some car related forum.

  8. Christoph
    Holmes

    That's odd

    I don't recall anything about prison sentences and sex offender treatment for the school authorities who used spyware to photograph students in their bedrooms. Strange, that.

    1. Aaron Em

      Re: That's odd

      In progressive countries like the US, public school authorities have broad powers to act in loco parentis, that is, in the place of the parent. It's not a crime for a child's parent to see that child naked, so it's not really a crime for the same child's school vice-principal to see her naked, either -- apparently, not even if he goes to a considerable amount of effort to do so.

      Not everyone cares for this, and it's far from how things have always been -- see Gatto for a first-rate examination of the history here -- but in countries where progressive hegemony holds sway, that's how it is. Progressive theory holds that the child belongs not to the parents, but to the state; when put into practice, the kind of laptop-cam spying to which you refer is one quite natural result. This is another. Perhaps the parents and children who complained about the laptop-cam spying should instead thank their lucky stars that the school officials in their case were satisfied merely to look, rather than touch.

      (For those who think I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, I encourage you to examine the representative sample of progressive response to such travesties which may be found here. In that article, entitled "Parental Rights: New Menace to Youth Health?", the discussion of the East Stroudsburg case forms part of an argument that inflicting internal genital examinations on middle-school girls in the middle of the school day, without any concern for consent either from the girls themselves or from their parents and without even giving the victims of this violation the opportunity to say "no", fails to go far enough.)

  9. Seanie Ryan
    Linux

    seriously?

    the computer said leave it near steam, so the girls decided to take the laptop to the shower, AND have a shower themselves at the same time, AND position the laptop camera to point straight at them?

    come on!!!!

    1. dotdavid
      Thumb Up

      Re: seriously?

      Yeah I would have expected a much lower success rate. Unless they all phoned him up perhaps and asked him what to do, and he said "well when it happens to me I just bring it into the bathroom with me when I take a shower"

      "And make sure the camera is pointing at the shower not at the wall"

      Hmm, so still unlikely then.

  10. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Joke

    Bates Motel computer repair, M'dam!

    Please don't let us interrupt your shower!

  11. LinkOfHyrule
    WTF?

    "You should fix your internal sensor soon. If unsure what to do, try putting your laptop near hot steam for several minutes to clean the sensor."

    Now if that happened to me, and let's suppose I was someone who who knew nowt about computers and thought it was genuine even if a little weird - I wouldn't be taking the laptop into the bathroom with me, my first thought would be to head to the kitchen and brew up a cup of Twinnings!

    And little nerdy perv boy, instead of seeing my lovely naked body all steamy and covered in soap, would instead be pulling his pud to images of my lime-scale coated kettle heating element and if he's lucky he might catch a glimpse of lip-on-porcelaine teacup slurping action but nothing more stimulating than that!

    1. Natalie Gritpants

      As Stephen Fry might say

      Porcelain.. Culture... ooooooooh

    2. LaeMing
      Go

      Yes, if I was the kind to not know better, putting the computer under a towel with a boiling jug (and some eucalyptus oil?!?) would be my first thought.

    3. Evil Auditor Silver badge
      WTF?

      @LinkOfHyrule

      These are 'merkins, these don't do tea. But still, WTF

      1. LinkOfHyrule

        Re: @LinkOfHyrule

        I know - you've hit the nail on the head here - if only they drank tea and had electric kettles.

        I would have no idea how to cope with certain stressful and difficult situations over there - what is the US equivalent of "shall we have a nice cup of tea" or "shall i put the kettle on" which is the natural response we have to well, actually every bloody kind of situation when you think about it!

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          Re: @LinkOfHyrule

          > what is the US equivalent of "shall we have a nice cup of tea" or "shall i put the kettle on"

          Shoot something ?

          1. kain preacher

            Re: @LinkOfHyrule

            Put the pot on. But there are a lot of Americans that drink tea. There even tea house on this side of the pound.

      2. Dana W
        Meh

        Re: @LinkOfHyrule

        I am am an American, and I drink so much tea that if you cut me I'd bleed Twining's Irish Breakfast.

  12. adam payne

    People like that give all us decent IT folk a bad name.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Oh come on you wish you thought of it first.

      1. Aaron Em
        FAIL

        Speak for yourself, pervo.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Were They All...

    Blond?

    1. zanto
      Trollface

      Re: Were They All...

      No. Just regular Mac users.

  14. Alpha Tony

    @LinkOfHyrule

    Oooh. Sounds great.

    How hard is the water? Full-fat, or a semi-skimmed milk?

    Is there any spooning involved?

    Rule #34 strikes again.

    1. LinkOfHyrule
      Paris Hilton

      Re: @LinkOfHyrule

      lol Actually if we do have some Tea Fetishists in here, I'm cool with that, we could do some teabagging!

      B-boom!!

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Porn

    Seriously, nowadays the Interweb is just stacked full of every conceivable kind of fetish porn you can imagine (and plenty you can't), so why the hell does anyone bother to take the risk with trying to do this sort of thing??! Just Google away my friend..!

    1. LinkOfHyrule

      Re: Porn

      Now I'm worried about the chap further up the comments with the Ann Widdecombe porno collection and how he came to acquire it - was that a case of "excuse me Miss Widdecombe- I notice your Windows ME seems to be playing up again, would you like me to take a look at your lappy for you and fix it? And don't worry, I wont remove your cat desktop wallpaper!"

    2. Oninoshiko
      IT Angle

      Re: plenty I can't

      I dont know, I have a pretty creative imagination...

    3. Uplink

      Re: Porn

      If I were to guess, I'd say that seeing naked people you know is more gratifying than random porn on the Internet. Those naked people on the Internet are already naked. But getting those hot girls in your neighbourhood to strip for you... good luck with that. Yet that's what you really want: naked.hot.neighbour.jpg or even .mpg; It's really really hard to find porn that looks like the girl next door. If you could get people to do that IRL, you'd spend more time in clubs and then use your own webcam - one "modded" so it doesn't have a light :)

      1. Uplink

        Re: Porn

        Oh, and I have to mention: No, it doesn't make it OK to spy on people, even if human psychology can explain why people are drawn to doing it.

  16. LordHighFixer
    Coat

    I hate to be the first to say

    PICTURES or it didn't happen...

    mines the one with an old copy of busdriver in it.

  17. Andrew Jones 2
    Meh

    The bit that I don't get - if you take a laptop into a bathroom while you have a shower - unless you are having a not very steamy shower - the lens on the camera should just fog up in seconds?

    I suspect that while he may well have been able to convince people to take the computer into the bathroom - he didn't actually get any pictures - but it depends if the computer was automatically taking pictures at intervals or if the guy had to be actually connected to the computer.

    It's possible that he was able to get pictures of the women getting undressed - but I am not convinced of that either - It's one thing to take the computer into the bathroom - it is quite another to stand in front of it while getting undressed.

    In any case - he is a dirty pervert and deserves whatever he gets.

    1. pixl97

      From the sound of it (and what I've seen of software like that), is that the camera can take a snap every $x amount of time, or be set to record when it detects motion. Since he had a remote control in to it, whenever the machine was connected later he could then scalp the images from it.

      Also, most bathrooms are pretty small. If the person in question didn't face it toward the wall then it could likely see them. Remember these... err.. idiots didn't think it was recording them all the time so it's quite possible they didn't think to face it away.

      And yes, he's a dirty pervert that broke the trust of people that had him do work on their systems, I'm pretty sure they Geek Squad would hire him.

  18. Alan Brown Silver badge

    12 months??

    That's a very light sentence. The investigators may wonder why they bothered.

    1. kain preacher

      Re: 12 months??

      He is a registered sex offender now. He will never get a security clearance. He can not be around kids or with in so many feet. Every time he moves he most contact the local police and let them know. His name and address will be made publicly available. Wren he is harassed at his home for being a sex offender cops are not likely yo do any thing about. Good luck getting a job with a back ground check.

  19. toadwarrior
    Meh

    If they fell for that he shouldn't ber punished, the women should be for being that stupid.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Yeah, they were probably ask for it, right? I'm sure it is perfectly acceptable to sexually exploit anyone more stupid than yourself, just like it is perfectly acceptable to physically abuse anyone weaker than yourself.

      And besides, I'd say they've already had their punishment. His turn, now.

    2. Aaron Em

      I'd be a lot less ambivalent about feminism

      if it weren't for assholes like you.

      1. Steven Roper
        Trollface

        Re: I'd be a lot less ambivalent about feminism

        You're ambivalent about feminism, Aaron? You could have fooled me, since I had you pegged as one of the more devotedly misandrist male feminists on here some time ago. So how's that anti-male crusade going? Gotten any more of the competition jailed yet?

        You should club up with David W. and Oolons on these forums, since they seem to hate males about as much as you do!

        1. Aaron Em
          Thumb Up

          It's a fair cop, Steven -- or *was*

          I'll cheerfully admit you had me dead to rights; the only problem I'd have had, a few years ago, with being called a "male feminist", was that I didn't believe any man deserved the title -- and if this makes me seem to have been so zealous as to have reached the point of self-caricature, well... This was the result not of any principled stance on my part, but rather was driven by an enormous well of self-loathing which I had not yet recognized for what it was. Turned inward, it would've driven me to suicide, so I turned it outward instead and ended up despising not only myself, but all men. (I can't say with certainty that every male zealot of the type I used to be is so motivated, but I wouldn't be surprised to discover that were the case.)

          They say time heals all wounds, and it's certainly done so for me. More to the point, I realized about the same time that self-esteem is a thin and unsatisfying substitute for genuine self-respect, of the sort which like all respect must be earned -- at which point I began to work on earning my own respect. Once I'd begun to succeed at that, I found that a pat on the head and "good dog!" from radical Internet feminists no longer satisfied, and I started looking for other perspectives from which to understand the world.

          It was around this time that, by the grace of God, I stumbled upon Mencius Moldbug, whose "Open Letter to Open-Minded Progressives" was a genuine revelation -- and, for those still mired in the progressive view of the world, about the truest test of "open-mindedness" anyone could hope to find short of, say, reading Admiral Semmes' Civil War memoir. (Blogspot archives being the crap that they are, this Moldbug concordance will save you a lot of time. Those interested in Admiral Semmes' memoir may find it here.)

          Progressive hegemony being what it is, I had previously had no direct exposure to any other style of political thought, and anyone who's been both within and without progressivism well knows what I mean when I say that progressivism only acknowledges the existence of other schools of thought inasmuch as is necessary to deride and vilify them -- going to progressivism for an honest picture of any other political theory is exactly like going to Germany circa 1938 for an honest picture of Jews. (Moldbug is himself Jewish, which makes it all the more amusing that those few progressives who've heard of him so readily call him a Nazi.)

          I've got plenty of work to do, so I won't belabor this any further, and it's a bit more public navel-gazing than I really prefer in any case; the point is that, while you're right to read my comments from a while back and spot me as a dedicated misandrist then, my more recent comments should be enough to show I'm telling the truth when I say that's no longer the case. (I don't know from Oolon, but David W. would certainly agree with me on this -- take, for example, this thread, in which he and I get into it on several subjects, from mens rea to feminist theory's inherent support for child molestation. Or, you know, just look back over a few pages of my recent comments, and see if I still seem to regard progressivism and feminism in the way you used to see me do.)

        2. Aaron Em

          Re: I'd be a lot less ambivalent about feminism

          ...and, yeah, I know I've got a lot to live down. Fortunately, I've got half a lifetime or so to do it in; with any luck, I'll have discovered how reliably to avoid making a horse's ass of myself some time before Cheyne-Stokes breathing sets in.

  20. Martin Maloney
    Coat

    Be honest, guys

    When you read this story, didn't you at least crack a smile?

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Background check?!

    The problem is that in this economy many employers are relying on third party companies to check references etc.

    It wouldn't be hard to list a number of a fictional company, with a suitable website for the purposes of generating a convincing glowing reference and when the number is phoned up Mr Unemployed Buddy answers with the appropriate information.

    There is an entire online industry devoted to "cleaning up" dodgy records, if they query the low quality of the record then "my original got damaged during the move, this is the backup copy" usually works.

    Don't even get me started on identity theft...

  22. Stretch

    "specialising in fixing Macs"

    nuff said.

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