Friday, October 5, 2018

Cyberstalker sentenced to over 28 years in prison


A Massachusetts man was sentenced Wednesday (Oct. 4) to 210 months in prison for conducting an extensive cyberstalking campaign against his former housemate, her family members, co-workers, friends, and others. 

In April, Ryan S. Lin pleaded guilty of hacking into his ex-roomate's online accounts, posting fraudulent sexual solicitations in their names, sending unsolicited images of child pornography, and making over 120 hoax bomb threats. 

Lin, 25, formerly of Newton, Massachusetts, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William G. Young of the District of Massachusetts, who also ordered him to serve five years of supervised release following his prison sentence. 

Lin and the victim met after he answered a Craigslist ad and moved in with the victim and her two other roommates. The FBI says that soon after Lin moved in with Smith, she was the victim of multiple hacking, harassing, and cyberstalking incidents.

Lin pleaded guilty to seven counts of cyberstalking, five counts of distribution of child pornography, nine counts of making hoax bomb threats, three counts of computer fraud and abuse and one count of aggravated identity theft. Lin was arrested in October 2017 and has been held in custody since. As part of Lin’s plea agreement, Lin agreed to be sentenced to a minimum of seven years and a maximum of 17 ½ years in prison.

According to court records and evidence presented at sentencing, from about May 2016 through Oct. 5, 2017, Lin engaged in an extensive cyberstalking campaign against a 25-year-old female victim. Lin, the victim’s former housemate, hacked into the victim’s online accounts and devices and stole the victim’s private photographs, personally identifiable information, and private diary entries, which contained highly sensitive details about her medical, psychological and sexual history, and distributed the victim’s material to hundreds of people associated with her.

Lin also created and posted fraudulent online profiles in the victim’s name and solicited rape fantasies, including “gang bang” and other sexual activities, which in turn caused men to show up at the victim’s home. Lin engaged in a number of other activities targeting the female victim, including relentless anonymous text messaging and additional hoaxes, from shortly after he met her until October 2017.

In addition to his former housemate, Lin engaged in cyberstalking activity aimed at six additional individuals.

In addition to the cyberstalking activity, Lin falsely and repeatedly reported to law enforcement that there were bombs at the primary victim’s Waltham, Massachusetts residence. Lin also created a false social media profile in the name of the primary victim’s housemate in Waltham and posted that he was going to “shoot up” a school in Waltham, stating that there would be “blood and corpses everywhere.” 

Ultimately, Lin pleaded guilty to having made over 100 bomb threats, including 24 in a single day.
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