More malicious messages targeting female student sent to school emails

Mar 1, 2017 | 12:45 PM

MONCTON, N.B. — Two more malicious mass emails targeting a female University of Moncton student were sent to students and staff at the New Brunswick school late Tuesday evening, bringing the total number of such emails to six.

A statement from the university said the emails arrived at 10:18 p.m. and 11:45 p.m. Tuesday.

The school said its IT department deleted the first email about 25 minutes after it showed up in inboxes, and the second email was deleted an hour and 15 minutes later.

The series of mass emails, some of which contained naked photos of a female student and a threat toward the university, started arriving Saturday.

Roxann Guerrette, president of the university’s student union, said roughly 1,000 students and staff received multiple emails over the weekend that contained a threatening message directed at the university, and naked photos of a female student.

Guerrette said the emails appear to be a form of blackmail or “revenge porn” — when someone distributes intimate images of a person without their consent.

In one email, the sender said they were living in Morocco, so “catch me if you can.”

“I’m not afraid of no one, and I’m taking all my responsibilities. I didn’t do anything wrong. I just showed you the reality of this girl who is acting as an innocent person but with devil’s acts,” said an email provided to The Canadian Press by Guerrette.

The email ended: “This is just a warning for the ‘University’ of Moncton because I’m coming back to play with you guys. See you around.”

The school said six emails have been sent in total. It says the emails originated from a server in Europe and they believe the messages are coming from the same “source” using different email addresses.

A request for an interview with an official at the University of Moncton was declined, citing an ongoing RCMP investigation.

The Mounties have confirmed that they interviewed the victim and have identified a suspect.

— By Aly Thomson in Halifax.

The Canadian Press