Cybercrime Help: Protect Yourself

Questioner

Dear Sir/Madam, Recently I received a message via Facebook from a guy who claimed that I had sent him nude photos of myself. Since I didn't believe this, I asked for a print screen. It turned out that someone had hacked an old email address of mine, with my first and last name in it, and was spreading nude photos of another girl. There is no head on these photos, so you could easily believe that it is me. Now I found this strange, but not very annoying because it is not me. During my holiday I received an email from Apple that someone had logged into my iCloud account and I received an email from Facebook that they had tried to recover my password. Now I am very worried, because I now know that it is a targeted action and all photos from my phone are uploaded directly to my iCloud account. So also photos that are not intended for third parties. I have changed my passwords, but too late. I called Apple to ask if they could provide the IP address that was used to log in, but Apple does not want to do that. Then I went to the police station to report it, but according to the investigating officer this was also not possible because there is no perpetrator. I find this strange, because there is no perpetrator yet, because the police are not putting any energy into finding that perpetrator. I have the feeling that no one wants to help me and I am constantly being sent from pillar to post. This hacker has had access to all my private photos, contacts, e-mail and bank details by logging into my iCloud account, but no one seems to care. What is your advice and what is the best thing for me to do? Kind regards

Lawyer

Dear, What an unpleasant state of affairs for you. Unfortunately, these kinds of things are happening more and more often. Apple is indeed not allowed to provide you with IP addresses of others. They have to do so at the request of the police. It is therefore good that you have filed a report. I regret that your report was not included. Unfortunately, we also see this often. It follows from the coherence between Articles 163 and 165 of the Code of Criminal Procedure that investigating officers are obliged to record a report. Furthermore, it is not up to the police to determine whether a case is feasible or not; this decision is reserved for the public prosecutor. This concerns cybercrime. Many law enforcement officers do not know much about this. They cannot do anything about it, because this is a relatively new area of ​​law in which there is still little training. It is therefore important that you provide a clear explanation of what exactly happened when you report it. You can also hand over copies of emails of login attempts. I advise you to file a report anyway. If you are refused again, you can refer to the articles I just mentioned. Should you require legal assistance with or prior to your report, you can contact me. Our office specializes in cybercrime. We can also talk to the police if they refuse to record your report.