AfterDawn: Tech news

Perverted Mac repairman arrested for planting software on computer, spying via webcam

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 11 Jun 2011 11:55 User comments (19)

Perverted Mac repairman arrested for planting software on computer, spying via webcam 20-year-old Trevor Harwell, a Mac repairman for Rezitech in Orange County, California has been arrested today and charged with installing software on computers he was fixing that would rig the webcams to capture video of the owners.
Harwell would plant software on the computer that would take control of the computers's webcam and send pop up messages reading: "You need to fix your internal sensor soon." A second pop up error then said: "Try putting your laptop near hot steam for several minutes to clean the sensor."

Following the advice of the error messages, some women would take the laptop into the bathroom with them while they showered, letting the hot water run for a few minutes beforehand.

At the time of arrest, Harwell's hard drives had hundreds of thousands of still images and videos, many of which showed the victims naked, showering or changing clothes.



Police were tipped off to the pervert after a customer's father complained that "suspicious" messages were appearing on his daughter's computer.

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19 user comments

112.6.2011 01:12

Why? So much porn on the internet (and of models rather than average people). Also not very smart have popups of such suspicious messages.

212.6.2011 01:22

Originally posted by Ragnarok8:
Why? So much porn on the internet (and of models rather than average people). Also not very smart have popups of such suspicious messages.
It's a fetish;however, they also have porn sites for this too.

312.6.2011 02:55

It's still sick tho; unless all parties involved were willing; this was clearly not. Chances are he gets 2 years in prison or some other form of slap on the wrist.

412.6.2011 04:22

On the bright side he was smarter than the average mac user so that's something anyway right?

512.6.2011 10:33

Good for his dumb ass.

612.6.2011 11:35

I've been smacked for commenting about the US's judicial system having become shite, so I'll take it again here as well...

1. this idiot will probably walk with probation because it will have been a first time caught & prosecuted offense.

Not knowing where the laws are right now, I can't tell you folks if it will be federal of state infractions, but actual 'time' will end up being 'time served' if not house arrest because dough boy there doesn't have a record of violent behavior.

2. current laws concerning computer crimes will have numb nuts pulling his pud to the tune of glossy mail order catalogs for several years as his coming into within 100 feet of a computer may be up to 5 years or more. And they DO take that seriously. How seriously? Well, they're not going to waste energy peeking in the windows to see if he's answering email & the likes, but if he 'is' caught doing "anything" he 'could' serve double his probation in prison.

So slick should have gotten a confidence coach, a wardrobe change & some Trojans instead of this idiot move cause now he's going to end up with the horse faced girl from some back woods family out of "Deliverance" that, "ain't never seen no computin machine & whuts a flat sca reen?", due to the fact there won't be a man alive that will let this asshole near his daughter now that this story & his picture have been plastered all over the world.

I'm sure this prick's family is 'so' proud.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 12 Jun 2011 @ 11:39

712.6.2011 18:30

Well said LordRuss

812.6.2011 23:01

Pure Genius

913.6.2011 04:49

Mac users are dumb?? Taking your computer into the shower??

1013.6.2011 12:30

I don't think it has to just be Mac users. I got to say it was clever but he was bound to get caught.

1113.6.2011 12:41

"Mac users" have nothing to do with it. We all eventually get caught up in our own "Jerry Springer" moment. Nobodies immune, wait & see.

This could have been a Geek Squad goon just as easily hitting all walks of computer users, thus making him an "equal opportunity computer perv".


1213.6.2011 13:05

Did anyone else see this?

Quote:

Police were tipped off to the pervert after a customer's father complained that "suspicious" messages were appearing on his daughter's computer.

That seems to imply that the guy had child porn...the US "justice" system might not work very well for most things, but it is really good at putting child pornographers in prison.

1313.6.2011 14:37

I must be a little 'thick'... I don't see it 100%. I mean, couldn't the daughter have come to her dad with the computer telling her weird stuff? You know, like lines out of "Poltergeist" or something? A haunted computer or something like that.

1413.6.2011 15:18

Logic seems to dictate that if one child ran into it, others did as well. Considering it seems like something that only a child would fall for, the chances of child pornography seem very high.

1513.6.2011 15:58

OOOOHHhh, the Repair Goon that got arrested is the pedo bear... been pissed off at these two idiots & the .99 cent Gaga deal meal, that I can't think strait.

Yeah, now that you mention it, he very well could be pedophile. I really do believe those guys should be bludgeoned to death.

1613.6.2011 17:26

They find a pic of a kid and he goes down...

Gotta wonder who would take their computer into the shower because a "pop up" said to...
Is that the so-called "idiot tax" ???

1713.6.2011 17:45

It would be interesting if, just as an experiment, someone wrote identical idiot test viruses for PC and MAC...something like, "Your shock sensor is out of alignment, please drop your PC onto concrete from a height of 5 feet to recalibrate"...

I bet mac users, assuming that they cannot get viruses and that macs are the best built computers on earth, would drop their laptops a lot more.

Of course, I don't officially condone experiments on unwitting test subjects with mental disabilities.

1814.6.2011 16:30

they should tie him up by his manhood like a pinata, and let all the inmates vent there pedo killing ways on this sick prick.

1914.6.2011 16:47

Originally posted by DXR88:
they should tie him up by his manhood like a pinata, and let all the inmates vent there pedo killing ways on this sick prick.
Ladies & gentlemen, we have an opening bid of a "beaten dangling participle"! Do I hear a "lead piped colon log flogging"? Anyone!?!

Gentleman in the back! You sir!

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