Minn. man accused of hacking Facebook, taking IDs

Published 1:32 pm Thursday, April 21, 2011

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — About a year ago, an 18-year-old woman was checking out Facebook and instant messaging with someone she thought was her friend, when she unwittingly revealed security questions that would lead to passwords for her computer accounts.

The next day, she found three pictures of herself posted on a sexually explicit adult website, complete with her name and hometown. While prosecutors have charged the man they believe is responsible for hacking into her account along with several others, authorities can do little to make those online pictures go away.

“My advice would be to stay very, very aware of anyone asking you for personal information, either on a telephone or via a computer, or any other electronic means,” Washington County Attorney Pete Orput said Wednesday. “You need to hold on to that information with the utmost care.”

Prosecutors have charged Timothy Peter Noirjean, 26, of Woodbury, with 13 counts of identity theft, alleging that from February 2010 through March 2010 he hacked into Facebook accounts, posed as the account owner to make contact with that person’s friends and attempted to gain access to more accounts.

Once he had access, prosecutors allege he stole photographs of eight women — ranging in age from 17 to 24 — and posted those pictures on adult websites. Authorities also identified nine other victims whose accounts were accessed so Noirjean could get to other accounts.

It was not immediately clear whether Noirjean had an attorney. A phone message left at his home was not returned. Authorities said when they questioned him at his home he admitted he had been hacking into accounts, and stealing and posting photos, but denied knowing that he did anything wrong.

The criminal complaint said his computer contained 92 separate folders with photos of women, and 235 email addresses with what appeared to be the answers to security questions for those accounts.

His first court appearance is set for May 26.

Orput said he doesn’t know Noirjean’s motive, but said it wasn’t money. He said all of the pictures posted online were “compromising” in nature.

According to the criminal complaint, which identifies the victims only by their initials and birthdates, the 18-year-old woman who originally went to police had been chatting with someone she thought was a friend on Feb. 5, 2010. She gave up some personal information, and the next day found her password had been reset and pictures had been stolen from her email account and posted online.

She later realized that someone was using her Facebook account to try to do the same thing to one of her friends. One of those women told police she “friended” a man named “Steve Mills” who described a picture that had been taken from her computer and said it was posted on his website.

“‘Steve Mills’ stated that he would take down the posted photo, if (the victim) sent him a fully nude photograph of herself, which she declined to do,” the complaint said.

Orput said a detective sent an email to an address connected to the website, asking that the photos be taken down, but received no response.

“We can hold the perpetrator accountable, but we are unable to remove their photos from the worldwide web, so they are out there, along with identifying information,” Orput said.

Craig Sorum, supervisory special agent in charge of the FBI’s Cyber Crime Squad, said social networking sites are great for sharing information with family and friends, but warned that people have to be careful with information they disclose.

Sorum said con men can impersonate a friend or legitimate business professional and lull someone into a false sense of security. And it can be done from anywhere in the world, he said.

“I can set up a Facebook page with all of your pictures on it. Nobody would know it was me,” he said. “A friend of a friend of a friend? Well that is really not a friend to me.”