Even as the World Wide Web has provided a wealth of new opportunities in education, communications, and commerce, it also has created plenty of opportunity for crime. As quickly as enterprising businesses find new ways to capitalize on the Internet, so too do criminals. From child molesters to con artists, criminals have used the Internet to hunt and lure unsuspecting victims, to cheat and defraud the computer-using public, and to target and terrorize individuals, sometimes to the point of endangering their lives.

Dellapenta

But those who use the Internet to commit crime risk serious penalties. In the 1990’s, the San Fernando Valley man known as the world’s most notorious hacker, Kevin Mitnick, spent five years in federal prison for hacking into such companies as Motorola and Sun Microsystems – even though Mitnick never financially profited from his habitual hacking. Another Internet criminal who received a stiff sentence was cyberstalker Gary Dellapenta. In 1999, the Encino security guard pleaded guilty to charges that he used the Internet to terrorize a woman who had spurned him. Dellapenta received a prison term of six years – at the time, the longest sentence ever imposed on a cyberstalker

In response to escalating Internet crime, police and prosecutors have developed new ways to crack down on perpetrators. Law enforcement agencies have increasingly devoted resources to stopping high-tech crime – with positive results. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s High Technology Crimes Unit is devoted to the investigation and prosecution of online crime. The unit has prosecuted both adult and teenage offenders, whose parents often become liable for thousands of dollars in criminal penalties and reparations. The cases below are a sampling of Internet crimes prosecuted by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Hernandez

A 14-year-old girl living in the Midwest struck up an online relationship with a Los Angeles County man after he discovered her user profile in Yahoo! Personals. They communicated over the Internet for several months about a variety of subjects, including those of a sexual nature, even though the man, 30-year-old Umberto Hernandez, knew the victim was underage.

When she visited her father in Los Angeles over the winter holidays, Hernandez made arrangements to meet the girl. On New Year’s Eve, he enticed her out of her father’s home in the middle of the night. He lured her to his van, where several sexual acts were performed.

The traumatized victim returned to her Midwest home and reported the incident to school authorities. Police set up a sting operation, posing as the girl to communicate with the suspect online. Hernandez again used the Internet to arrange a meeting during what he was told would be the girl’s next visit to Los Angeles. At the prearranged time, he knocked on the victim’s father’s front door. Detectives answered his knock, arresting their suspect.

Hernandez was charged with five counts of lewd acts upon a child and another count of attempted lewd act upon a child. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in state prison (which was stayed by the judge) and was ordered to serve a year in county jail and placed on five years formal probation. He was ordered to register as a sex offender and obtain counseling for sex offenders.

Dezerne	Javaheri

A man and a woman who taught at John Muir High School in Pasadena used the Internet in their scheme to seduce students into having sex with them. Two female students were sent sexually explicit e-mails and instant messages as part of the sex scheme. Other evidence found on the teachers’ computers was used to secure their convictions.

Investigators also discovered that the male teacher, Cyrus Javaheri, had used the Internet to lure at least one more minor into having sex with him and had engaged in multiple "cyber sex" conversations with individuals who represented themselves to be as young as 11 years old. A forensic analysis of the defendant’s computer provided a large amount of incriminating evidence – including photos of his half-nude victims, hundreds of images of child pornography, and e-mails establishing his clear desire to molest minors.

The defendants, who were dating each other, had taught and tutored the central victims in the case, ultimately luring the girls into participating in group-sex with them. The female teacher, Tina Dezerne, pleaded guilty to one count of oral copulation. She was placed on three years formal probation and was required to perform 240 hours of community service and to register as a sex offender for life. Javaheri pleaded guilty to multiple counts of sexual intercourse and oral copulation with a minor. He was sentenced to 16 months in state prison with the requirement that he register as a sex offender for life upon his release.

Case #3:

Two 16-year-old honors students used stolen credit card numbers to set up shop on the eBay Internet auction site as part of their scheme to defraud would-be buyers of "Virgin H-cards" used in the illegal programming of satellite TV systems. Through multiple eBay accounts, the teenagers auctioned cards that could be used to obtain free satellite TV service. The would-be buyers paid as much as $2,000 for sets of H-cards that did not exist. The fraudulent auctions netted the teens $20,000 in cash and also gave them access to credit card numbers that were used to purchase an array of items online. The defendants enlisted other teenagers to ship and drop off illegally obtained merchandise and used other students and parents to cash their checks and launder funds. Among the items the teenagers sought to buy online was a gun. In the end, five teenagers pleaded guilty and were sentenced to probation under very restrictive terms. In addition, the youths and their parents were held liable for $23,000 in restitution.

Case #4:

Three teenage boys defrauded would-be Rolex wristwatch buyers out of more than $20,000 in an Internet scam. The boys lied about their ages and used stolen credit card account numbers to set up online auctions of the wristwatches. Photos of merchandise scanned from a Rolex catalog were used to market the nonexistent watches on the online auction sites. The boys demanded that all payments be made in cashiers’ checks so that no "stop payments" could be made. Three victims sent cashiers checks totaling $22,500 before realizing they had been duped. The boys pleaded guilty and were ordered to repay the money they had stolen.

Case #5:

A 15-year-old boy assumed the identity of a girl he had once gone to school with years earlier, using her name to participate in acts of cyber-sex. After engaging in sexually explicit online conversations with strangers, the boy would encourage them to contact the girl by telephone for sexual favors. To facilitate the call, he would direct his cyber-sex partners to a false Internet Service Provider profile he had created in the girl’s name. The profile site indicated that the girl wanted to engage in multiple sex acts and listed the girl’s actual home phone number in a code that was easy to decipher. He used the same account to send and receive pornographic images. Several men called the girl at home insisting that they had previously met in a chat room. Each began the telephone conversation with the victim using a sexually explicit "code phrase" that indicated she wanted to be raped. Through caller ID, police tracked down the men who had called and learned where they had obtained the victim’s phone number. The trail eventually led to the boy, who pleaded guilty to identity theft.