Indiana man accessed women's sexually explicit Snapchat photos with info from dark web

A man who accessed email and Snapchat accounts of hundreds of women in an attempt to find sexually explicit photos of them was sentenced Monday to five years of probation, court records say.

Dwayne Curry, 35, of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, targeted women he saw on the internet, on television or in person, according to court documents.

Curry was able to access at least 48 Snapchat accounts and 300 email accounts, prosecutors said. At least one woman identified by investigators lived in Cincinnati, but prosecutors said there were also victims in Tennessee and Pennsylvania.

One of the women is an athlete, and one is an elected official, according to court documents.

Curry used cryptocurrency to buy passwords through sites on the dark web, which sell stolen user account information.

Prosecutors said in documents filed in advance of Monday's sentencing that he would access the women’s accounts and view and/or download their private – and often sexually explicit – photos.

“Merely seeing a woman on television or passing her in public was often enough for Curry to unleash his cyberattack” on their accounts, prosecutors said.

Curry pleaded guilty in July in federal court in Cincinnati to unauthorized use of a computer.

Prosecutors noted that women are often ridiculed and blamed for taking such photos of themselves. Curry’s victims, they said, wouldn't attend his sentencing because they want to remain anonymous.

Curry is married and has two children with his wife. He has a third child from a previous relationship. He was unemployed as of November, but his attorney said in court documents that Curry had done contract work in the past. He has no previous criminal record.

In court documents, Curry’s attorney, Mark Wieczorek, said depression, anxiety and agoraphobia played major roles in Curry’s impulsive and risk-taking behavior.

Wieczorek, described him as a successful man “who made a grave mistake.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Indiana man sentenced for hacking into Snapchat, email accounts