Getting your identity stolen is bad enough. What if it was abused to buy and sell some of the worst content imaginable?
That’s what happened to a man in Ohio, whose name and personal details were used by people who were allegedly trading child sexual abuse material (CSAM), according to a search warrant reviewed by Forbes.
In 2023, when the FBI began looking into a person uploading CSAM to Dropbox, they discovered they were interacting with an individual who’d been selling links to abuse material.
Data from the user’s CashApp showed it’d ostensibly been registered by a 31-year-old from Mississippi. When cops learned the man was also under investigation in Dallas, they decided to search his address.
But when detectives forensically examined the man’s electronic devices, it became clear he was not the perpetrator. One clear indicator, they said, was that a key Gmail address linked to the CSAM deals was not found on any of his phones or computers.
It appeared that his name, address and other personal data had been stolen, then used to set up accounts online by the CSAM dealer.
According to the FBI, one email from the unidentified user suggested they used multiple different identities when selling child abuse material.