Teen Hacks MySpace Account to Send Threat Messages to School

An Olivia teen is facing charges of allegedly breaking into the MySpace account of another teenager to send threatening messages to a teacher and some students at Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City High School (ACGC). Deputies of Meeker County Sheriff were requested to visit the school on October 10, 2007 and examine the messages.

17-year-old Cozy Lynn Schick is charged of serious crime of sending terrorist threat messages and of performing gross misconduct of breaking the security and enabling unauthorized access to a computer system. Investigators with useful inputs from MySpace employees were able to track and locate Schick and arrest her. Charges against Schick were filed in Renville County District Court on November 15, 2007 and she is scheduled for arraignment on December 3, 2007.

From the petition presented, it was known that Schick and a friend of her obtained the password to the MySpace.com account on October 8, 2007. While a third party provided them with it, the original owner of the account did not give permission for an access.

Despite that, Schick made an intrusion to the page, altered a number of personal settings, and distributed threat messages to the addresses stored there. She also posted obscene messages and changed the page's password.

The message Schick wrote for the ACGC teacher contained cuss words and said that she would carry a gun to the school the next day and shoot everyone.

The case points to deception on the Internet and the impact it can make with serious consequences that could either be criminal or tragic. In one instance, a teen in Missouri recently ended her life because a fake friendship she developed online deceived her.

The student owning the page came to know about the hack on the following day when other students asked her the reason of sending the threatening e-mails. Later, when she accessed her account, she noticed the offending content.

The incident indicates the alarming results that could follow from students' activities outside school. Kids doing such blunders inside their rooms think no one would ever get to know about them, said Broderius, as per news reported by Startribune on November 18, 2007.

Related article: Twin phishing E-Mails Pose from Bank of Hanover

» SPAMfighter News - 12/1/2007