FLORIDA
A 31-year-old man plead guilty Thursday to cyberstalking, admitting that he publicly humiliated dozens of young women from January 2012 to January 2015, officials said.
Michael Daniel Rubens, 31, formerly of Tallahassee, Florida, admitted that he hacked the women’s online accounts, this includes the following:
- E-mail and social media
- Stealing photographs and other personal information
- Using the photographs to create pornography
- Posting the pornographic images on social media websites and on a revenge pornography website that was recently shut down by the FBI.
For each of the 12 counts of cyberstalking and unauthorized access to a protected computer, Rubens faces up to five years in prison. For the aggravated identity theft charge, he faces up to two years in prison to be served consecutively to any other sentence, according to authorities.
The sentencing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 25.
Rubens engaged in most of the conduct from his residence in Tallahassee. He used software to conceal his Internet Protocol or IP address.
Rubens’ victims included an employee of a local restaurant he frequented, an out-of-town colleague, an acquaintance in his office building, clients of the defendant’s employer, a former girlfriend and her colleagues, high school classmates and the victims’ relatives or friends.
For one particular woman, Rubens’ laptop contained 470 files with more than 5,000 references to the victim, officials said.
Rubens’ computer searches focused on finding the victims’ personal identifying information, such as past addresses, family information and other personal data that could be used to answer security questions.
As a result of Rubens’ conduct, officials said the victims became afraid to conduct any online activities and often deleted their social media presence entirely. In some instances, the conduct also affected the victims’ personal relationships, officials said.
This case resulted from investigations by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Florida State University Police Department and the Leon County Sheriff’s Office.