UCM Students Indicted After Trying to Sell 90,000 Classmates Personal Information

Written on November 24, 2010 – 1:48 am | by Chloe Gatenby

Two former University of Central Missouri students have been charged with stealing the identities of thousands of their classmates and faculty.

According to court documents, Joseph Camp, 26, and Daniel Fowler, 21, worked together in a computer hacking scheme while they were students during the fall semester of 2009. The two made a computer virus to infect University of Central Missouri computers, including the university president’s computer.

Once the virus was installed, the two were able to record a user’s keystrokes and download the user’s files. They obtained the username and password of a residence hall director, which they allegedly used to switch money from university accounts to their own.

They also obtained the username and password for a university administrator, allowing them to turn on the computer’s webcam to watch the administrator work and to download his e-mails, the indictment said. They also used the administrator’s information to gain access to university databases, which included student names and Social Security numbers.

In December 2009, Camp traveled to New York to meet a person who expressed interest in buying the identities he had collected, the indictment said. He offered the undercover agent 90,000 records in exchange for $35,000 and was promptly arrested, prosecutors said. He has since been indicted for identity fraud in federal court in New York.

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