'To Catch a Predator' Catches One of Its Own

A computer programmer who worked on the Dateline NBC show “To Catch a Predator” has been sentenced to 24 months in jail after pleading guilty to launching a botnet attack against media outlets that carried the story of his falling for the type of fictitious come-on the show routinely exposes.

Bruce Raisley, 48, of Kansas City, Mo., was found guilty of launching a virus that infected about 100,000 computers around the world and directed them to launch denial-of-service attacks on websites that carried the story about his agreeing to leave his wife and run off with “Holly,” a fictitious character like others featured on the show.

Prosecutors said Raisley had formerly volunteered for Perverted Justice, an organization that worked with the Dateline NBC show but had a falling-out with the organization and its founder, Xavier Von Erck.

Von Erck retaliated by posing online as an adult woman named "Holly" and initiating an Internet relationship with Raisley. Eventually, Raisley agreed to leave his wife for "Holly" and was photographed by a Perverted Justice volunteer waiting for "Holly" at the airport.

In September 2006, Radar Magazine published an article entitled "Strange Bedfellows," and in July 2007, Rolling Stone Magazine published an article entitled, “To Catch a Predator: The New American Witch Hunt for Dangerous Pedophiles.” Both articles discussed the television show and, more specifically, the techniques employed by Perverted Justice and the show to ensnare pedophiles. Both articles discussed the episode between Raisley and Von Erck posing as "Holly."

The two articles proved popular, and were later posted on a number of websites beyond Radar and Rolling Stone, including a website operated by the Rick Ross Institute of New Jersey. As a result, Raisley devised a plan to remove the articles from the websites.

Specifically, Raisley developed a virus that would spread over the Internet and infect computers. When he deployed the virus, it infected approximately 100,000 computers across the world, creating what is known as a "botnet." Expert witnesses explained that a botnet is a collection of victim computers that are remotely controlled to accomplish tasks such as sending out e-mail spam or, as in this case, attacking websites.

Raisley used the botnet to launch distributed denial of service attacks. Such attacks caused the 100,000 computers to repeatedly attempt to access any websites that posted the two articles in an effort to overwhelm the computers that hosted the websites and shut down the websites. The effect of denial of service attacks is akin to an "all circuits are busy" message, making it impossible for Internet users to access the content of the victim websites, including, of course, the two articles.

Evidence admitted at trial demonstrated that Raisley targeted and attacked a number of websites, including those of Rolling Stone, Radar, Nettica, Corrupted Justice, and the Rick Ross Institute of New Jersey. In total, those websites suffered damages in excess of $100,000 in lost revenues and mitigation.

In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler sentenced Raisley to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $90,386.34 in restitution.