A New York man has been charged with cyberstalking for allegedly harassing a Georgia faculty pupil by sharing AI-generated nude photographs and fabricated racist messages utilizing faux social media profiles.
Anthony Belford, 21, was indicted on June 10 after a federal grand jury returned an indictment on one depend of cyberstalking.
Belford and the sufferer attended the identical college through the 2023-2024 tutorial 12 months. After the sufferer transferred to a college in Georgia in August 2024, Belford allegedly realized of the switch and started focusing on the sufferer there.
In response to courtroom paperwork, between January and March 2025, the defendants created faux Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit, X, Strava, and Yahoo accounts, impersonated the victims, distributed AI-generated nude photographs, and unfold false claims that the victims had made racist feedback about Black college students and anti-Muslims.
Belford allegedly created a faux LinkedIn profile utilizing an AI-generated nude picture of the sufferer as a profile image, after which used a faux Yahoo e mail account to ship the AI-generated nude picture of the sufferer to the sufferer’s mom.
The defendant allegedly focused the sufferer whereas attending the identical college through the 2023-2024 tutorial 12 months, and continued the identical habits after the sufferer transferred to a college in Georgia in August 2024.
“Belford allegedly waged a long-running on-line marketing campaign, hiding behind impersonated social media and e mail accounts, harassing, threatening, and inflicting vital ache on his victims with racist messages and AI-generated nude photographs,” mentioned U.S. Legal professional Theodore S. Hertzberg.
“Cyberstalking and different types of on-line abuse, like bodily violence, can damage lives and disrupt communities. Victims of crimes like this could not endure in silence, and we’ll proceed to work with our legislation enforcement companions and use all instruments out there to carry perpetrators of those crimes accountable.”
The Justice Division added that federal legislation prohibits sharing or threatening to share intimate photographs (together with AI-generated photographs) with out consent, and urged victims to report violations to the FBI and alert the Federal Commerce Fee if on-line platforms don’t take away such content material inside 48 hours of a elimination request.
Extra data on methods to defend your self from cyberstalking makes an attempt and cease the unfold of photographs and movies shared on-line with out your consent is offered on the FTC’s Take It Down platform.
In March, Jamarcus Mosley, a 22-year-old from Alabama, additionally pleaded responsible to expenses of cyberstalking, extortion and pc fraud after hacking the social media accounts of a whole bunch of younger ladies.
That very same month, Kyle Svara, a 26-year-old from Illinois, additionally pleaded responsible to hacking the Snapchat accounts of practically 600 ladies to steal their personal nude photographs, which have been then traded or bought on-line.
Safety groups doc 54% of profitable assaults and situation a warning on solely 14%. The remaining strikes invisibly by means of the setting.
Picus’ whitepaper reveals methods to take a look at your SIEM and EDR guidelines in breach and assault simulations to make sure threats go undetected.
Get the white paper
