A 39-year-old man was arrested at the Tarpon Springs (Fla.) Public Library August 22 on extortion charges as he sent threatening e-mail messages from a public-use computer. FBI agents said Michael Pitelis was ransoming codes to unlock software published by Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC), claiming he would distribute the information if the company did not pay him an increasingly large sum of money, eventually demanding $1 million.
According to the August 24 St. Petersburg Times, Pitelis began his project August 3, when he wrote PTC’s chief executive from his home computer. He soon moved his correspondence to the library, however, where librarians paid no special attention to him as he inconspicuously sent e-mail from a public terminal.
FBI investigators traced Pitelis’s e-mail to the library, and began watching his activities. Though the library’s Internet service provider had alerted staff that someone was using one of its computers for illegal activity, staff was not aware of the nature or scope of the problem, or that the library was under FBI surveillance.
When agents moved to arrest Pitelis, Library Director Elizabeth O’Brien was impressed with their discretion. “They really were very smooth about it.” Pitelis was unknown to the staff, she added: “We weren’t sure whether he was a new customer, or if we just hadn’t noticed him. Nobody knew him.”
Posted August 28, 2000.