Expert: Chris Wagoner - 1/17/2012

Question
Hi! I need help. I live in NC. Last week my boyfriend's email was hacked and there were messages sent from his email to mine saying that he was cheating. Anyhow Sun. night my email was hacked resulting in messages being sent to my contacts informing them that our wedding had been cancelled (our wedding coordinator) and also to say that we are engaging in behavior that is evidently against our beliefs. I have contacted authorities who are honestly clueless. They were all crowded around a NC law book from 2007. I need help. Aren't there laws against this? What should my next step be? This same person is also hacking my sister's facebook account sending out harmful messages about me. Please help! Thanks so much,
Crystal

Answer
Good Morning Crystal,

Yes there are laws in North Carolina against this type of behavior, and I'm sorry the law enforcement seem to be clueless they are still learning about these types of things. The long in North Carolina they need to look at is Article 60, section 453 of the criminal code under Chapter 14.That gives them the definition of a computer crime is and right under that is the actual law violation itself called accessing computers:

§ 14‑454.  Accessing computers.
(a)        It is unlawful to willfully, directly or indirectly, access or cause to be accessed any computer, computer program, computer system, computer network, or any part thereof, for the purpose of:
(1)        Devising or executing any scheme or artifice to defraud, unless the object of the scheme or artifice is to obtain educational testing material, a false educational testing score, or a false academic or vocational grade, or
(2)        Obtaining property or services other than educational testing material, a false educational testing score, or a false academic or vocational grade for a person, by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations or promises.
A violation of this subsection is a Class G felony if the fraudulent scheme or artifice results in damage of more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), or if the property or services obtained are worth more than one thousand dollars ($1,000). Any other violation of this subsection is a Class 1 misdemeanor.
(b)        Any person who willfully and without authorization, directly or indirectly, accesses or causes to be accessed any computer, computer program, computer system, or computer network for any purpose other than those set forth in subsection (a) above, is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
(c)        For the purpose of this section, the phrase "access or cause to be accessed" includes introducing, directly or indirectly, a computer program (including a self‑replicating or a self‑propagating computer program) into a computer, computer program, computer system, or computer network. (1979, c. 831, s. 1; 1979, 2nd Sess., c. 1316, s. 19; 1981, cc. 63, 179; 1993, c. 539, s. 293; 1994, Ex. Sess., c. 24, s. 14(c); 1993 (Reg. Sess., 1994), c. 764, s. 1; 2000‑125, s. 4.)

the way that they would go about investigating this is fairly easy. They would send a subpoena to your Internet service provider and your boyfriend's Internet service provider requesting access logs for the dates and times that you believed your system was hacked. They would then identify the IP address of the computers that are not yours that access your system and then send a subpoena requesting the identifying information as to the account. That's how they identify the suspect. Once they identified the suspect they then send a search warrant request to the same Internet service provider for the dates and times that that IP address is used to access your accounts and request any and all e-mails and or transmissions for that time frame. Once they have that they can then choose to get a search warrant for the suspects computer and seize it and have examined by forensic investigator to prove that they accessed your system. After that's a fairly cut and dried case.

The police in your area should be old handle this and if not then they can refer the case to the Sheriff or state level for help. If you need more assistance or you need more help in pointing you in the direction of who to contact in North Carolina to get more assistance let me know. Sorry you're going through all this trouble I can only imagine how distressing it must be.

Sorry for the delay in response but I had to research North Carolina law to make sure that is giving you the current and most accurate laws and not from 2007.

Hope you feel better, stay well, and be safe.