Webcam Spy Man Arrested

By Digital Trends Staff August 8, 2008

Webcam Spy Man Arrested

Craig Matthew Feigin might be good with software, but he’s not so good at life. The 23-year-old installed a pair of programs on the laptop of a woman so he could automatically activate the built-in webcam to spy on her and send him images. But now he’s been arrested and charged with modifying computer data and disrupting or denying computer system services.

Gainesville, Florida police claim he took videos of the woman in various states of undress and collected 20,000 pictures of her which he stored on a server in Eastern Europe, according to Vnunet.

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Feigin was a University of Florida student known to be good with computers, and the woman took her laptop to him when it began running slowly. However, once he’d fixed it, she noticed that the battery was running down quickly and that the laptop would activate automatically. When she took the computer to another friend, the software was found and police contacted.

It wasn’t exactly rocket science tracing responsibility to Feigin. He’d already unsuccessfully tried to market the software, which he’d developed himself, as a way to remotely check on babysitters or partners. Police found his address on the website he’d been using to try and sell the program.

“He was shocked. He was totally surprised to be arrested,” Detective Mayo told the Gainesville Sun.

“We have eight or nine more potential victims that we know of now. We believe some of them may be students at UF or at Santa Fe (College).”

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