Man jailed for sending email threats from Thailand

[think_too_mut]

Man jailed for sending email threats

 

Stuttgart, Germany

September 9, 2004 - 10:10AM

 

A German doctor's assistant has been jailed for 3½ years for trying to extort money from banks, hotels and airports with email threats sent from internet cafes in Thailand.

 

The court in this southern city ruled that the 44-year-old had sent dozens of emails threatening to kill people or blow up buildings if he was not paid because he needed money for a flight home from Asia.

 

The man also said he was facing a heavy fine because he had overstayed his visa for Thailand after falling in love with a Thai woman, but that his girlfriend had left him when he ran out of money.

 

Under the aliases Jonathan Drake and Vincent Baxter, he sent out 39 emails to German and Austrian institutions demanding between ?5000 and ?10,000 from the recipients and threatening to kill someone close to them if they failed to pay.

 

He told airport authorities in the messages that he would detonate hidden bombs if he did not receive between ?50,000 and ?100,000.

 

At Vienna's Schwechat airport, a security team was forced to hold a crisis meeting over the threats while security officials at Tegel airport in Berlin dispatched sniffer dogs to hunt for explosives.

 

Most of the institutions targeted, however, ignored the threats on the advice of the police.

 

Authorities were able to trace the emails back to Thailand and arrested the suspect when he flew back to Germany.

 

The defendant, who had already run into trouble with the law in 1992 for threatening a German pop singer, told the court that he had found the email addresses for "the crazy idea of blackmail" on the internet.

 

AFP

[MaiLuk]

>>but that his girlfriend had left him when he ran out of money. <<

 

So this is the true root cause of terrorism

[iuytrede]

seems to be much easier to trace someone using internet cafes than i would have thought...

[Guest]

I wonder just how they can prove someone sent anything over the internet unless they actually get them while they are typing it.

 

Seems like it would be easy to frame someone by using their computer, email address or maybe accessing their wireless access.

 

 

suppose your gf ( or business partner for that matter) had access to your computer, and send emails that would be traced back.

[Guest]

What about posting threats of bodily harm to be inflicted in Thailand? Should that not be investigated and what would be the statuate of limitations?

[Guest]

"What about posting threats of bodily harm to be inflicted in Thailand? Should that not be investigated and what would be the statuate of limitations? "

 

 

yes, what about it, and agin how do they conclusivly prove who the acutal person behind it is.

 

on a similar note, I wonder how they prove what is on your hard drive is yours.

 

I bought/installed a used hd in my Mac some time ago, it still had lots of strange financial info on it ( wiped it several times after that).

 

how would one prove it was not his stuff on the hd, or how would someone investigating prove it was.

[Guest]

Pasa...Cleaning a hard drive is a needed process when using a referb HD. You run chance of destroying your whole system.

 

As to the abuse/threats factor. There is a hunt on right now for such a person. The proof will be numerous threating posts under numerous Name de Plume's directed at the same person. I understand this one is about to be caught and he works at an ISP in LOS and used that for a cover. Pitty the chap couldn't use his skill for benefit humanity rather that to serve some sick desire.