The creator of a ‘revenge porn’ website that posts explicit photos of women without their permission has been accused of posing as a female online to trick women into sending him naked pictures.
Craig Brittain, a 28-year-old from Colorado Springs, has allegedly started ‘catfishing’ – fabricating an online identity to trick unsuspecting web users into establishing a relationship – and then uploading the pictures to his website IsAnybodyDown.com.
Two women came forward and spoke to CBS4 about the incident, which started out as a chat on a ‘woman-to-woman’ forum on Craiglist in August 2012.
The Colorado woman – who did not want to be identified – said she met another woman called Jess Davis who she told ‘she was just looking for some fun, to hang out, experiment’.
Davis wrote: ‘Hey, I’m Jess, I’m 24. Here’s some pics of me.’
She sent along four nude pictures and a request to the woman to send her name, age, phone number and pictures,
‘I sent my pictures back,’ said the Colorado woman. She sent multiple photos, one of them explicit, along with her birthday and phone number and never heard from her again.
Five days later, the explicit pictures and her details appeared on Brittain’s porn website.
‘I was livid. I felt violated to say the least. I wanted to throw up I was so distraught. This was something I didn’t want the world to see, to have easy access to,’ said the woman.
‘I’m just shocked. What a sick, twisted mind. Just appalling.’
When CBS traced the email address back, it originated from the same IP address and same home as the one Craig Brittain was living in Colorado Springs in August 2012.
Other women have since come forward to say they also sent emails and pictures to ‘Jess Davis’ only for them to then appear on the revenge porn site.
Adding to the evidence, a reverse photo image search conducted by CBS4 on the four pictures provided by ‘Jess Davis’ showed that they had actually come from Craig Brittain’s website, but under a different name.
He has not responded to requests for comment.
Earlier this month, Brittain admitted he was generating about $3,000 a month from his website, which is facing a number of potential lawsuits from the women it exploits.
‘I call it entertainment,’ Brittain said. ‘We don’t want anyone shamed or hurt. We just want the pictures there for entertainment purposes and business. I would say our business goal is to become big and profitable.
‘We’re not out for revenge or being malicious,’ he added. ‘We just want entertainment, we want the money, we’re after making the buck.’
The website features compromising photographs of hundreds of women along with detailed information about them, such as their names and phone numbers. The site offers a cash reward to anyone who can provide additional information about the women featured and it charges a $250 ‘take-down’ fee for women who want their photos removed.
The websites are referred to as ‘revenge porn’ because the images are presumably obtained by jilted ex-lovers.
Brittain said he wants readers to get a more holistic view of ‘who the women are and what they are about,’ he told CBS4.
Craig Brittain, a 28-year-old from Colorado Springs, says he’s making about $3,000 a month from his ‘revenge porn’ website, IsAnybodyDown.com.
When Sarah, a 20-year-old Denver resident, came across her photos on the website, she said she ‘wanted to throw up.’
‘I couldn’t even understand how something like that could become public.’
She said she suspects that someone hacked the pictures from her Photobucket account, which was linked up to her cell phone pictures.
She said she had taken the photos for her boyfriend, who had moved out of state.
Caitlin, of Lakewood, also said she was sick when she found her images on the site.
‘I threw up,’ she said. ‘I was pretty disgusted by the whole thing. I’m not sure how they were obtained.’
The website directs women like Sarah and Caitlin to contact a lawyer named David Blad III if they want their pictures removed from the site.
The lawyer charges a $250 take-down fee. The existence of said lawyer is questionable, however, as there are no records of an attorney named David Blade III.
Asked whether he was acting as David Blade III, Brittain said ‘I’m not. Not true at all.’
If he is lying, Brittain could face extortion and impersonation charges, and at least a half dozen women are considering taking legal action against him.
But when it comes to his website, Brittain may not be doing anything illegal, thanks to the broad protections of freedom of speech laws.
Attorney Marc Randazza is intent on finding a way to quash Brittain’s operation, however, by suing him for copyright infringement. Randazza has been in touch with several women whose photos were posted on the website.
Another ‘revenge porn’ website, Texxxan.com, has been shut down by its host site, according to reports.
GoDaddy.com shuttered the site last week citing copyright infringement, attorney John S. Morgan told the Houston Chronicle.
Morgan had filed a class action lawsuit against the site on behalf of more than two dozen local women who said their photographs were posted without their permission.
Morgan told the Chronicle that GoDaddy was planning to share the IP addresses for the site’s operators and users within two weeks.
If the women snapped the photos themselves, they can register the images with the state’s copyright office and then sue Brittain for copyright infringement, Randazza says. Brittain could face up to $150,000 in fines for each infringement.
Randazza has said he’s also going after Brittain for posting photos of girls who said they were under the age of 18 when their photos were taken.
Brittain believes he is protected under freedom of speech laws and has no plans to shut down his operation.
When asked whether he thought what he was doing was ‘really sleazy,’ Brittain retorted, ‘We live in a really sleazy society.’
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