Man Sued For Hacking Ex-Lover’s FB Account

The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) has filed 100 counts of hacking and anti-violence against women against the ex-boyfriend of a 23-year old girl from Paranaque City who threatened the victim to post their pictures inside a motel on Facebook.

CIDG chief, Police Director Samuel D Pagdilao Jr. said that last September 18, 2012 around 4:00 PM, elements of CIDG Anti-Transnational and Cyber Crime Division (ATCCD) have arrested Joewell Santos Chan, 28, of 26 Milkyway Bricktown, Moonwalk, Paranaque City for violation of the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004 and for 100 counts of hacking in of the Electronic Commerce Act and Child Pornography.

Pagdilao in the light of the arrest of Chan, issue a stern warning to people who are similarly engaged in hacking and coercive activities via the internet that the CIDG will decisively deal with them with the enactment of the Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012. He also advised all cyber citizens to always secure their identities and passwords even to relatives to prevent falling prey to cyber criminals.

Chan’s arrest stemmed from the complaint of a certain Dominique from Merville Park, Parañaque City, who personally appeared to the CIDG-ATCCD last July 11, 2012 to seek help.

Investigation disclosed that Chan was Dominique’s former classmate in high school and the latter’s former boyfriend. Victim averred that their on and off relationship began last June 2011 and ended on November 2011.

On May 2012, the complainant discovered that she couldn’t access her email and Facebook accounts and that her passwords were hacked and changed by unauthorized user. When she checked her Facebook account, she discovered that there was a SMS Security No. “*******2784” appeared on its Facebook webpage.

Dominique later remembered the mobile phone number of Chan and that the security code matched with her ex-boyfriend’s mobile phone number. She immediately confronted the suspects for hacking her Facebook account.

During their confrontation, Chan admitted that he was responsible for hacking her ex-girlfriend’s email and Facebook accounts. The suspect later agreed to give the passwords on condition that the victim will personally meet with him. Dominique said that with her desperate desire to retrieve her email and Facebook accounts, she agreed to meet Chan.

Sometimes on June 2012, the victim met with the suspects. Dominique thought that they will just talk in one of the restaurants and coffee shops but the suspect instead drove her inside Halina Motel in Pasay City against her will. Inside the motel, the victim immediately demanded for her passwords but Chan forced her to drink Vodka before giving her the password. After few minutes, she noticed that she felt dizziness and lost consciousness thereafter.

The victim later discovered that the password that was given to her was not working. This prompted her to refuse the succeeding invitations of the suspect to meet up with him. Because of her refusal to meet Chan, the suspect began harassing her through text messages by threatening her that he will spread the video and pictures that he took in the motel through the social networking sites if the victim continues to refuse meeting her. She added that the suspect demanded sex in exchange for her passwords. It was at this point that the victim, who feared of being tricked again, filed her complaint at the ATCCD-CIDG.

During the initial investigation, Dominique requested the cyber investigator of ATCCD to help her deactivate her hacked Facebook account. However, she later discovered that the suspect opened another Facebook account using her name and pictures and he was pretending to be her through the said social networking site.

Feeling threatened and unsafe, Dominique returned to ATCCD-CIDG on September 21, 2012 and requested police assistance because the suspect was again coercing her to meet him at about 4:00 o’clock in the afternoon at vicinity of Starbucks Café in Metrowalk, Pasig City. The CIDG immediately hatched out a plan to arrest the suspect.

Around 3:30 PM of same date, suspect Chan arrived on board his Honda Civic car (ZFR 573) in front of Starbucks Café. During their meeting, a heated argument ensued between the victim and the suspect who still refused to give the password if the victim will not come with him in a motel. To convince the victim to come with him, the suspect accessed her email account using his Samsung cellphone in order to prove that he has the control on it.  When Dominique rejected Chan’s plan to go to a motel, the suspect held the hands of the victim and dragged her outside the Starbucks Café towards his car at the parking area.

When the suspect pushed the victim inside his car, the arresting officers immediately came to rescue the victim and arrested the suspect. The CIDG recovered from the car of the suspect a bottle containing ½ Vodka, another bottle of liquor, and the Samsung S3 Cellphone, a flat washer owned by the suspect.

During investigation, Dominique found out that Chan made 19 log-ins to her email messages without her permission. Cellular Phone Forensic Examination also revealed that several images were downloaded from the complainants hacked email account with the total of eighty-one (81) without her permission. It further showed the text messages of the respondent to the complainant containing threats, harassment, intimidation and coercion on different time and dates.

Several videos were also extracted from the cellular phone of Chan showing him abusing the victim while she was sleeping inside the suspect’s car.  A Child Pornographic video was further extracted from the Cellular phone.

Source: PIO, CIDG