Thinking about sending a flirty selfie to your special someone? Think twice. There’s always a chance that the pic could end up in the hands of the likes of Kevin Bollaert, owner and operator of the “revenge porn” site ugotposted.com. Bollaert has been the subject of a lawsuit and was recently found guilty for 27 counts of extortion and identity theft.
Kevin’s site operated by allowing people to upload pictures of anyone. It then encouraged angry and jilted men to post private and sexually explicit photos of their exes. The site required the posting individual to disclose personal identifying information about the individual in the photo. If someone found a photo of theirs on the site and wanted to take it down? No problem, said Bollaert. Simply pay $300-$350 through his other website changemyreputation.com and the photo would come right down.
Being found guilty, Bollaert now faces as many as 20 years in prison (we hope without internet access).
While the jury should be lauded for its strict ruling over Bollaert, this isn’t the end. If there’s anything the closing of The Pirate Bay has taught us, it’s that when one site like this gets shutdown, literally thousands pop up in its place.
So, this Valentine’s Day, think twice and be safe. There are more Kevin Bollaert-types out there just waiting to make a quick buck off of other people’s suffering and embarrassment.
