San Diego Man Arrested For Running Revenge Porn Website, Extortion
A man in San Diego, California, was arrested Tuesday for allegedly operating a website featuring “revenge porn.” 27-year-old Kevin Christopher Bollaert is accused of also extorting the women in the pictures. Prosecutors say he tried to force his victims to pay up to $350 to have their sensitive pictures removed. Bollaert is facing 31 felony charges, including conspiracy and identity theft. He is being held on $50,000 bail.
Revenge porn refers to the practice of angry ex-boyfriends or divorced husbands posting sexually explicit pictures of their former partners. The intention is to publicly humiliate and shame the women in the photos. It’s typically meant as a form of retaliation against the woman for ending the relationship.
The accused San Diego man used his website, ugotposted.com, to allow people to anonymously post such images online.
California passed a law earlier this year which specifically outlaws posting revenge porn online, making doing so a misdemeanor, as previously reported on The Inquisitr. However, prosecutors have not charged Bollaert under these new laws. Instead, he has been charged under existing felony laws.
The San Diego man also allegedly used another website, changemyreputation.com, to contact the people in the sensitive pictures. Bollaert collected around $900 a month through his PayPal account. Prosecutors say he raked in tens of thousands of dollars from his extortion victims over many months.
Prosecutors also revealed emails sent to Bollaert from several women who found their pictures posted on his website. Many were angry and scared. One woman wrote that “it makes me sick you run this as your little family business.” Another woman wrote that both her pictures and her personal information were posted, leading to a number of people calling her, sending her graphic photos, and emails hoping to have sex with her.
The San Diego man is also facing a lawsuit from a woman in Chicago. She accuses Bollaert of posting 14 lewd pictures of her without permission. She says that their public posting severely damaged her relationships with her family, friends, and coworkers.
[Foreground image via Facebook / 10News; Background via ShutterStock]