Two 15-Year-Old Alleged ‘Hackers’ Held : Computer Extortion Victim Tells Terror

For five years, John Sands’ computer was his main joy in life.

The Encino man loved stretching the boundaries of the technology--playing games, sending messages, even helping to create an Agatha Christie-style mystery with contributions by computer buffs like himself.

Then the fear began.

Upon coming home one day in mid-March, Sands, 43, the chief electronics engineer at Capitol Records, found that 100 messages had been intentionally erased from his computer. During the next few days, more and more material, which had taken Sands months to compile, disappeared.

Sands started receiving messages from someone who had cracked his computer system, messages which indicated his life would be ruined if he didn’t pay $350. He couldn’t trace the perpetrators, and he couldn’t stop the messages.

‘Blood Ran Cold’

Soon afterward, the mystery novel vanished without a trace, only to be replaced by a real-life mystery that Sands said “made my blood run cold.”

Sands apparently became one of the victims of two 15-year-old computer “hackers” who stand accused of trying to extort money from computer buffs. The youths, who had allegedly been terrorizing computer users in Los Angeles, Seaside and Ft. Ord, were arrested Wednesday in what is being called the first extortion-by-computer scheme in Los Angeles, although no money was collected.

The arrests were made by Los Angeles police at the youths’ homes in Marina, north of Monterey.

Authorities said the youths used a “modem” device linked to their computer to gain access to other home computers through telephone lines. They left threatening messages, authorities believe, on “electronic bulletin boards” used by their victims.

Destroyed 400 Pages

In Sands’ case, they allegedly were able to crack his computer security system and to destroy the equivalent of 400 pages of typewritten information. That is, they were able to “hack” their way into his computer.

Los Angeles police were unable to trace the calls made to Sands’ bulletin board because the calls had been routed through several switching stations maintained by private, long-distance telephone services, according to court documents.

The suspects are believed to have transmitted threats ranging from assassination to sending thousands of dollars of unwanted pizzas or prostitutes to the victims’ homes.

Authorities were still determining Friday when and where the two youths will be prosecuted, since the crimes were traced to Northern and Southern California. Besides Sands, the “hackers” had targeted a staff sergeant in Ft. Ord, the soldier’s teen-age son and another teen-ager who attends a private high school in the Pebble Beach area, authorities said. The boys were turned over to their parents Wednesday.

‘Why Me?’

As the afternoon wore on Friday, Sands struggled with handling an awkward celebrity status at his office while still shaking over the events of the last two months.

“I lost a lot of sleep, and I’m still a bit paranoid,” Sands said as his phone rang with inquiries from reporters and fellow workers. “When I confront these kids in court, my first question would be, ‘Why?’ My next question would be, ‘Why me?’ ”

Sands bought his Apple computer five years ago and set it up in his bedroom.

“For me, the most fun was using it as a communications tool,” he said. “It became an information-gathering tool, and I would play fantasy and role-playing games. It was as much fun as going to a movie.”

He started a “community bulletin board” called “Port Royal,” patterned in the pirate movie genre, in which he could trade information and articles with other computer buffs.

Pirate-Type Language

When material started disappearing, Sands knew that someone had broken into his system. But he couldn’t trace the intruders. The first message was written in pirate-type language and detailed the damage the culprits would cause, and the cost if he did not pay.

“They told me they would vandalize my apartment, put graffiti on the walls, send girls from an outcall service to my house, break my windows and slash my tires,” Sands said. “One message said they would break my bones and endanger the life of my family. They told me they knew my real name and address and itemized the costs. They had style.”

Sands said he received a message a day for 38 days. “They were days when I was afraid to come home, for fear that these things had happened,” he said. “I felt totally helpless. I would sign on every morning, and I would watch this message appear every day between 6:30 and 7 a.m. This unknown entity was ruining my life.”

He said he felt tense all the time. “When they deleted the mystery, that was the low point,” he said. “I thought, ‘How could one human being be allowed to do this to another human being?’ ”

Youths ‘Not Playing’

Sands put his faith in the computer fraud unit of the Los Angeles Police Department’s bunco section. “The police took this very seriously, and I knew they would catch these guys eventually,” he said.

Marina police were able to find evidence of the suspects’ whereabouts when they checked out an apartment in San Jose where the victims were supposed to take the money. Police said they discovered it was occupied by the sister of one of the juveniles. Detectives then traced that evidence to the teen-agers, according to Capt. Fred Reno, chief of the Los Angeles police bunco section.

Reno said the youths were not playing. “They meant business,” he said. “These kids kept browbeating him (Sands) and scaring him so much that he felt it was a possibility that they could really hurt him. This was not a game.”

Hackers Not Admired

Even though the culprits displayed ingenuity, Sands said, he did not admire their “hacking” abilities.

“I would not have done the same thing as they did when I was 15,” he said. “It’s like breaking into a library and vandalizing someone’s books, like defacing a park and stealing all the benches and trees.”

Sands said he will counsel some youngsters on his computer system against “hacking.”

“I want to tell them that the people who fight crime with computers are a lot more clever than the ‘hackers,’ “he said. “I feel sorry these kids got involved, but I’m glad they were stopped before they got into something real big.”