WEBVTT - The Vigilantes 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:04.640 A quick note, This is episode five of a six 0:00:04.720 --> 0:00:08.800 part series. If you haven't heard the prior episodes, we 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:13.520 recommend going back and starting there. It should also be 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:20.119 noted that this series explores sexualized imagery involving miners and violence. 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:35.879 Please take care when listening. How did you feel when 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:37.479 you heard the name Patrick Carrey? 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:43.440 Overall like sharkeed, Like completely sharcked. 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:47.400 I was sitting with Kayla back where the story began. 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:51.360 We were in her living room, a couple miles from 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:55.440 the basement where Patrick Carey had wreaked havoc on the 0:00:55.480 --> 0:01:00.720 young woman of Levett Town. Kayla remember, was the first 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:03.800 person to learn from her father that she was on 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:08.480 the website, and she later came to learn that Patrick 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:12.039 Carey was the person behind the faked photos of her. 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:17.920 This kid would DM me all the time and also 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:20.959 like swipe up on my Instagram stories. He never gave 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:24.520 strange vibes to me, So when I heard his name, 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:30.200 I'm like, are we thinking the same Patrick Carrey? Because 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:33.440 that's insane? 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:38.520 And how did learning who was behind the website change 0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:40.120 your perspective on the situation. 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:44.280 I think that made it even worse for Kayla. 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.720 His actions had real world consequences. 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:51.560 It completely altered the way that I thought about my body. 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:54.560 I used to feel so confident about it. I felt 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:59.160 so in tune with my body, and then it completely changed. 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:04.760 I started having eating issues. I would eat two baits 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:08.880 and feel absolutely disgusted in what I'm eating and disgusted 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:10.320 in my body for wanting food. 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:16.000 What Patrick had done to Kayla's pictures online worked on 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:21.960 Kayla offline. He had manipulated her images, played with and 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:27.720 altered her body to suit himself, and in turn, she 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:31.400 was changed. She had to figure out who she was 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:36.640 now in the aftermath of his campaign. She sought help, 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:41.360 did the work, and eventually learned how to cope. 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:44.359 It took a long time for me to get there. 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:50.480 It took a lot out of me, and I'm never 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:53.920 going to get the old person back, like I'm a 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:55.240 whole new person now. 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:01.520 In a comic book, this would be her origin story. 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:05.160 This is New at five right here a disturbing arrest 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:07.720 on Long Island. Some of the details are just too 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:10.400 graphic for TV, but what we can tell you is 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.240 that a young man is charge of posting explicit images 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:17.360 of underage women online, allegedly taking their faces in personal 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:21.040 info and then posting them to pornographic websites. 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:26.680 In December twenty twenty two, Patrick Carey pleaded guilty. During 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:30.560 his court appearances, he had to face not only the judge, 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:34.800 but also the survivors and their families, which was closely 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:36.760 covered by local New York news. 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:40.560 The mother of one victim sat in court today as Carrie, 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:46.200 twenty years old, faced dozens of charges including child pornography, harassment, 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:47.080 and stalking. 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.320 Because this is just terrible. It's horrible, and it's affected 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:54.120 these girls, like you can't even imagine. These are good girls, 0:03:54.240 --> 0:04:07.360 they're in college. It's just horrible what this animal has done. 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:11.040 I was wearing this long gray dress because I didn't 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:12.880 want him to see my body. 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:17.159 When Kayla showed up at the Nassau County Courthouse, she 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:20.640 stood out here a vibrant shade of orange. 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:24.039 I didn't want any part of my skin showing because 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:26.240 I was scared that he would look at me and 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:31.120 instantly start thinking something or even saying something to me. 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:36.000 She walked into the building by herself and made her 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:37.400 way through the halls. 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:43.560 It was really like gloomy in there, and it was 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:47.840 a tiny little room. He was already in there, sitting down, 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:49.880 and there was only one seat left and it was 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:51.080 right next to him. 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:54.080 Kayla froze. He was just. 0:04:54.160 --> 0:05:00.240 There with no handcuffs, no lawyer next to him, all 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:04.800 by himself. He didn't have any family with him. I 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:08.719 had no family with me because they were all working and. 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:12.560 Busy, so nobody could come with me. And I was 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:13.400 really scared. 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:15.920 And then I saw him, and it was like a 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:21.960 fire or flight in my body, and quite honestly, it 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:24.279 was probably the scariest moment. I instantly went into a 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:28.600 panic attack. I ended up staying outside in the hallway 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:32.799 because I just could not bring myself to walk past 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:35.679 him have him look at me. Even though he wouldn't 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:37.680 look at me, He kept his head down the whole 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:38.360 entire time. 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:42.440 It had been more than two years since she had 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:46.760 first seen the website, and now, after all this time, 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:50.599 Kayla found herself in the same room as the person 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:54.040 who had gone after her. Even as she felt the 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:58.520 panic rise up, she also felt herself growing more and 0:05:58.680 --> 0:05:59.760 more furious. 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:05.280 He's maybe didn't physically hurt someone, but he mentally and 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:09.800 emotionally abused us, And the fact that they're just letting 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:13.840 him be out there with no one attending him, with 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:18.599 no handcuffs. It was very angering that I just I 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:23.880 had nowhere else to go, and it was very hurtful. 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:26.920 I felt like it was like a smack in the face, like, oh, 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:27.799 here we go again. 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:29.520 I have to deal with him. 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:33.520 And for that to be the first court appearance that 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:36.720 I went to, and that's already how I was starting off, 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:41.120 it really set the tone that like, okay, like I 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:43.680 really got to be prepared for these next court appearances, 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:45.680 because this is what could happen next time I found 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:46.320 by myself. 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:50.280 One day in court, a father of one of the 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:55.520 victims was physically restrained from trying to attack Patrick. At 0:06:55.560 --> 0:07:00.760 another prosecutors read several of Patrick's more graphic posts out loud, 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:06.200 and his father, a former NYPD detective, left the courtroom 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:13.040 visibly distressed. Kayla showed up almost every day. Then she 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:17.480 did what at first had felt unthinkable. She chose to 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:21.560 face him. She remembers when she decided what she was 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:23.480 going to say, it. 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:26.240 Was actually in the shower. It was like struggling to 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:27.840 figure out what I already said I was going to 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:30.640 do it. A victim impacts the ement, but I didn't 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:34.400 really know exactly what I wanted to say, and it 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:35.600 was really angering me. 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:37.000 And I was so low. 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:39.559 I was like sitting down in my shower, just letting 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:42.840 the hot water hit me. And then it just hit me, 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.160 and I took out my phone and I just started 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:49.880 writing at my notes and I did not stop. Like 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:52.600 I wrote the whole entire thing, partably in five minutes. 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:55.800 I said it to myself three times and I was like, 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:57.320 this is the speech. 0:07:59.480 --> 0:07:59.880 It seemed. 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:03.360 And hearings, victims are invited to share an impact statement 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:08.000 to help the judge determine the correct punishment. Kayla was 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:11.400 the only victim to read a statement at Patrick's sentencing. 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:15.960 She felt nervous, but she got up from her seat 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:19.520 in the courtroom and walked to the podium in front 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:24.960 of the judge, about twenty feet from Patrick. Her hands 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:28.240 shook so much she could barely read her own handwriting. 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:31.840 I think the shaking wasn't the nerves, it was the 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:35.600 anger in me. And I just needed to breathe, and 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:40.000 I did that. I had to pretend nobody was in 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:41.960 the room and I was just speaking from my heart. 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:46.480 I stared directly at him, and he would not look 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:50.880 at me. He kept looking straight ahead, and just like down, 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:53.400 he refused to look at me. He was looking at 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:56.240 his hands. But the whole time I spoke, I looked 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:59.600 at him, the whole entire time. But it was the 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:05.120 hard thing ever, because I didn't want him to know 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:09.079 my emotions. I don't like people knowing my emotions already 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:12.640 as it is, but having him know my emotions felt 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:15.080 like a very vulnerable. 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:18.960 You can say no to the next question, but we 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:23.280 have your victim impact statement. Would you feel comfortable reading 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:26.520 it out? 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:34.240 Thinks I hear it here, I can safely say you 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:36.640 are the weakest person in the room, not any of 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:40.160 the victims. You had to sit behind an electronic device 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:43.920 to say how you felt. I am the strongest person 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:45.960 in the room because I am looking you directly in 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:48.520 the face to tell you that you discuss me. You 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:53.000 hurt me, but you've also changed me. You completely changed 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.200 the way that I viewed myself and my body, and 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:59.439 for that, I'll never forgive you your name, will forever 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:02.640 give me night and haunt me. You have non idea 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:04.760 what you have done to me mentally and physically, But 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:06.560 at least I am strong enough to be able to 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:07.160 tell you this. 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:07.760 To your face. 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:10.240 You make me sick like you make others, and I 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:13.280 promise you that will never change. I hope you remember that. 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:16.520 Now I have to heal my inner child because you 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:22.120 couldn't hold back on your sexual desires and thoughts. 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:24.480 How do you feel reading that again? 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:25.800 Empowered? 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:28.600 Empowered in what way. 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:32.680 That I was able to actually stand up in front 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:36.960 of him and speak my mind. Every single thing that 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:40.320 I wrote in that statement was completely correct. Like he 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:46.959 is disgusting to me. Still, I'll never forgive him. 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:49.640 There were dozens of young women who were targeted by 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:52.800 him on that website, but only a few of them 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:56.120 decided to be involved in the criminal case. Why did 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:57.880 you want to be involved in it? 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:01.960 Because someone needs to speak out. I already went through 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:04.480 trying to be quiet about it and trying to push 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:07.840 it past, But now finding out that this happened to 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:08.760 so many other. 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:09.640 Women and. 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:15.800 The extent that it happened in, Yeah, no, I couldn't 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:20.640 be quiet on that. Also, it's not fair to us 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:24.800 girls that we had to sit here in silence seeing 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:29.160 a website be posted of us and not be able 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:31.800 to do anything, and just have to sit here and 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:34.760 take it. No, that's not fair at all. 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:46.640 From iHeart Podcasts, Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope, this is Leavettown. 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:56.200 I'm Olivia Cavell and I'm Maggie Murphy. Then it was 0:11:56.240 --> 0:12:00.439 Patrick Carey's turn to speak. Patrick wouldn't talk to us 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:03.680 for this podcast, so we're having a voice actor read 0:12:03.760 --> 0:12:05.200 some of his statement here. 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:09.480 Before the court. I can say endlessly, how I regret 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:11.840 what I have done for the rest of my life. 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:14.720 How I wish I could take it all back, not 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:18.120 just because of the legal and social repercussions, but the 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:21.320 regret that I failed my basic responsibility as a decent 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:26.440 member of society. Thirty forty fifty years from now, I 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:29.320 will still be reflecting and atoning simply to feel good 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:34.000 about myself. Still, from this point on, it is up 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:36.040 to me to show to the court and the people 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:39.040 that care about me that I can do better. I 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:41.480 can't chalk up my awful behavior to being a young, 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:44.960 dumb kid. I have to address my own social and 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:47.320 mental issues that got me here in the first place. 0:12:48.360 --> 0:12:52.880 Only consistently within a lifestyle of discipline, empathy, and routine 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:55.960 for a long time, can I prove I'm worthy of 0:12:56.000 --> 0:13:00.760 some capacity of trust. And finally to my many victims 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:03.920 and their families, if you want to hear anything from 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:06.320 me at all, I would want my last words to 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:13.600 be that I do not expect forgiveness. I'm just sorry. 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:18.320 He apologized, and like that's worth nothing to me. You 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:20.960 did what you did, and that's that. Like you already 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:23.000 did that. Just because you say I'm sorry, it's not 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:24.040 going to change anything. 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:30.760 Since Patrick had pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including three felonies, 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:33.040 there wasn't a question about whether he was going to 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.440 be punished, only how the punishment would be doled out. 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:41.720 The Nassau County District attorneys, Melissa Scannell and Kelsey Laura, 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.480 had worked to have him charged with sex crimes in 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:47.320 part to be sure that he was monitored for as 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:49.960 long as possible. As Kelsey told us. 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:53.800 We felt very strongly about having him on that sex 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:59.160 offender probation because it's much more stringent than typical probation. 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:03.040 In the end, he was sentenced to six months in 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:07.800 prison plus ten years probation and a lifetime status as 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:13.240 a registered sex offender, so no smartphones, no device with 0:14:13.320 --> 0:14:17.120 a camera without prior approval, and no living within one 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:21.320 thousand feet of a school or a playground, which meant 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:24.000 that when he got out of prison, he'd have to 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:26.720 move out of his mum's house because it was right 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:32.240 behind in elementary school. Before handing down the sentence, the 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:36.840 judge told Patrick, quote, I can only hope that during 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:41.480 your period of incarceration you will reflect and think and 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:46.600 understand about the mental violence and intimate and emotional theft 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:49.560 you did to these young women, and that they will 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:52.800 continue to endure this for many years to come as 0:14:52.840 --> 0:15:00.680 a result of your cold and truly despicable behavior. With 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:05.040 Patrick behind bars, Melissa and Kelsey from the District Attorney's 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:09.760 office had one final mission to get the survivors pictures 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:14.560 off the website. Remember, the vast majority of the pictures 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:19.280 and reposts weren't illegal because the law at the time 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:23.840 didn't say anything about posting deep faked nude images even 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:28.040 if the people in them were minors. They were deep fakes. 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:33.320 But now their creator was a convicted sex offender. The 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:36.560 prosecutors thought they might have a shot of convincing the 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:41.200 site administrator to take down the images, but when they 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:46.440 went to the website, they discovered it was gone. Can 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.720 you talk about your realization that come on printed pecks 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:50.480 had gone dark. 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:55.440 So when we realized that the website had gone down, 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:58.920 we were really happy. We thought that that was wonderful. 0:15:59.560 --> 0:15:59.880 This is. 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:05.200 Like, oh good, somebody else got them. That somebody else 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:08.320 was Will Wallace the PI Back in New Zealand. 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:11.080 There was kind of a loose collection of information on 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:14.240 the Internet about the website. That period of my life. 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:18.400 I was trying to make a concerted effort to get 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:21.240 the website removed from the Internet. 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:25.400 While Melissa and Kelsey had been working up charges against 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:30.440 Patrick Carey, Will had turned his focus from catching people 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:33.080 who were posting on the website to trying to get 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.680 the whole thing shut down. By this point, Will had 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:39.840 helped solve a few cases and was frankly sick of it, 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:44.280 of the site, the images, the harassment, all of it. 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:47.200 He was tired of playing whack a mole with creeps 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:50.640 and ready to take down the site and the person 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:55.040 responsible for its existence. Will's next step was to try 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:57.400 and figure out who had registered the domain. 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:03.560 Within a r there is something called who's histories. Whoa's 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:07.760 entries are not very common nowadays. Anyone who registers our 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:12.080 website pretty much gets their information redicted. But one of 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:15.800 the very first entries for come on printed pecks head 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:18.120 and old burner email. 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:22.240 Burner emails are commonly used by people who want to 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:26.280 hide their identity, So how do you connect a burner 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:30.840 email to an actual person? A massive security breach may 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:34.000 have exposed the social security numbers of millions of Americans 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:35.160 follow the hackers. 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.600 Hackers have breached the email accounts of two dozen organizations. 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:42.560 Profiles and nearly seven million customers were hacked. Data breaches 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:47.200 a treasure trove of information headline News at the time. 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:51.000 When hackers steal our data from a company, they treat 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:54.200 it like loot, to be sold off for profit, usually 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:57.800 on the dark web. But after a few years the 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:01.080 information is no longer worth much and makes its way 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:04.480 to the broader web. So Will was able to find 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:08.119 an old database of hacked email addresses. He put in 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:12.280 the burner email and found a match. This is how 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:15.040 Will found out that the same burner email that was 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:18.720 used to create common printed picks had also been used 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.640 to create an account for cafe press, where you order 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:26.600 matching t shirts for family reunions or bachelorette parties. On 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:30.240 that same database, Will could also see the password to 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:34.240 the Burner account used on cafe press. It was fairly unusual, 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:38.440 not the standard password one two three, and with that 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:42.600 he could essentially run a reverse password search in another 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:43.920 hacked email database. 0:18:44.920 --> 0:18:49.280 The password was of sufficient uniqueness that I could, you know, 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:54.600 boil it down to a number of other email addresses. 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.520 What Will found was a collection of email accounts that 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:04.240 all had that same unlikely password, a decent indication that 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:07.040 they were set up by the same person, and one 0:19:07.080 --> 0:19:10.119 of those emails had the name of an actual person, 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:18.760 Scott Trent Coster. Will lipped up the name Scott Trink 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:22.119 Coster appeared to be a real, living person according to 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:25.480 public records, but as far as the Internet was concerned, 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:30.960 Scott Trink Coster didn't really exist. No social media, no LinkedIn, nothing. 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:34.320 It wasn't quite enough to be like, yeah, this guy 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:38.120 definitely runs the website. So I was like, yeah, I've 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:40.960 got a hunch that this person is perhaps running the website, 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:45.120 but it's not enough. He's a ghost. He's a real ghost, 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:51.280 and he's been very good at remaining as a ghost. 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:55.640 You know, credit to him, I give him credit for that, right. 0:19:56.359 --> 0:20:00.479 He tuns through emails uses burners all the time. Some 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:04.720 people are very good at managing to slip through everyone's hands. 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:08.320 Will needed more than a name, He needed evidence. 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:14.560 When it comes to investigating anything, really, they always talk 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:18.200 about following the money, and I'm by no means a 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:22.480 financial crime investigator. But the good thing about money is 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:27.160 usually you have to tether an actual identity to kind 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:30.520 of any transaction that takes place, if it involves a 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:33.440 credit card or bank transfer or whatever. Not so much 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:37.920 with crypto, but you know, real money, there's always an 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:40.119 identity behind the transactions. 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:43.359 So Will went back to the website and looked around. 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:48.280 There is a portal that allows you to pay to 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.480 delete accounts and images on the platform. 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:55.400 That's right. One thing we haven't mentioned about the tributing 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:58.520 website was that victims could try to get their images 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:02.680 done for a price. The young women in Levittown, as 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:06.120 far as we know, weren't aware of this feature, but 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:08.880 for ninety nine dollars, the website said it would take 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:13.760 down images by request. Will decided to try that way. 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:16.600 In to pay the ninety nine dollars and see where 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:20.000 it took him. He put in his credit card information and. 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:24.320 The credit card statement came back with a company name. 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:29.520 Cloud Cyber Services LC. Will found a record for the 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:32.720 company on a British business registry. He saw it was 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:34.640 registered to Scott Trink Costa. 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:37.560 And I googled it and saw that Scott drink Coaster 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:41.920 was a director of the company. Essentially, it was brilliant. 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:45.000 I was like, I know exactly who runs this website, 0:21:45.480 --> 0:21:47.320 even if I don't know a lot about them, but 0:21:47.400 --> 0:21:49.119 it was like a milestone for sure. 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:54.639 Finally Will had found evidence connecting the website where women 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:57.840 and girls all over the world were being abused, degraded, 0:21:57.960 --> 0:22:02.640 and docked to Scott. He had also found another company 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:06.359 used by the tributing website in a Louisiana business registry. 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:10.639 He saw it was registered to a person name Scott 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:18.840 Trink cost location, Louisiana, age thirty. With this evidence, Will 0:22:18.880 --> 0:22:22.280 began tipping information on Scott to reporters who had previously 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:25.920 written about the website and law enforcement who might be interested. 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:29.920 He also wrote a blog post outlining his findings in detail, 0:22:32.080 --> 0:22:35.280 and then crickets. 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:40.640 I didn't really get any response, which I found really 0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:44.600 surprising because in context, the website had certainly been talked 0:22:44.600 --> 0:22:49.000 about a lot generally in tabloid newspapers or court documents. 0:22:49.920 --> 0:22:51.600 I thought there would be a lot more of an 0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:57.840 appetite to prosure it from anyone. Apparently that wasn't the case. 0:22:58.680 --> 0:23:02.119 But Will wasn't ready to give up, not yet. He 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:04.800 wanted to seek justice for the young women and girls 0:23:04.840 --> 0:23:08.320 he saw on the site and to hold Scott accountable, 0:23:09.680 --> 0:23:10.840 but he needed allies. 0:23:11.840 --> 0:23:13.680 At that point, I was like, well, where ours is 0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:17.040 this website being talked about? And that is how I 0:23:17.200 --> 0:23:20.840 came to know that read it forum being female hate subs. 0:23:22.760 --> 0:23:35.920 That's after the break. After months, even years of digging 0:23:36.000 --> 0:23:39.680 through the dregs of the Internet, Will Wallace had finally 0:23:39.720 --> 0:23:42.320 found the person behind the website there had been the 0:23:42.440 --> 0:23:45.560 source of so much harm. He thought having the name 0:23:45.600 --> 0:23:48.840 behind the site, Scott Drink Costa, would be enough to 0:23:48.880 --> 0:23:53.600 hold him accountable, but the authorities didn't seem interested. So 0:23:53.720 --> 0:23:56.119 Will when in search of another group of people he 0:23:56.200 --> 0:24:02.720 thought might be, and he found them on Reddit, specifically 0:24:02.920 --> 0:24:06.000 a subreddit with more than twenty thousand members called ban 0:24:06.160 --> 0:24:10.439 Female Hate, a forum created to report misogynistic Reddit groups 0:24:10.760 --> 0:24:14.720 that posted non consensual images. It then expanded to become 0:24:14.720 --> 0:24:18.520 a watchdog for the Internet writ large. The forum has 0:24:18.560 --> 0:24:21.520 tips on how to report abuse and guides to getting 0:24:21.520 --> 0:24:26.000 your photos removed. Will saw that one user named Claudia 0:24:26.040 --> 0:24:29.720 Lopez had a lot of clout in the forum and 0:24:29.720 --> 0:24:32.680 that she was also digging into the same tributing website 0:24:32.720 --> 0:24:36.200 he was after. So Will shot her a message. 0:24:36.520 --> 0:24:38.760 I said, look, I know who runs it. I've written 0:24:38.760 --> 0:24:42.000 this blog post that outlines how I came to find 0:24:42.040 --> 0:24:42.680 the information. 0:24:44.119 --> 0:24:46.840 I thought he was a troll because his new account 0:24:46.880 --> 0:24:56.439 was very new to Reddit. Claudia is super mysterious. We 0:24:56.520 --> 0:24:58.800 don't know what her real name is. She appears to 0:24:58.840 --> 0:25:01.960 live outside the US and types as if she's speaking 0:25:01.960 --> 0:25:05.919 through Google Translate. This is me reading our back and forth. 0:25:06.520 --> 0:25:08.760 We've put an effect on my voice when I'm reading 0:25:08.760 --> 0:25:11.960 back what Claudia wrote. Why do you have to keep 0:25:12.000 --> 0:25:17.760 yourself anonymous? I have many enemies. Some show themselves and 0:25:17.840 --> 0:25:23.280 others like to be invisible. An attack without warning. Claudia 0:25:23.320 --> 0:25:25.600 had been active on the subreddit for a few years. 0:25:26.400 --> 0:25:29.200 She says she has helped many women and girls who 0:25:29.200 --> 0:25:33.640 have been targets on other tributing websites. This work started 0:25:33.680 --> 0:25:36.359