Ex-State Dept worker to be sentenced for ‘sextortion’ scheme

ATLANTA (AP) — A former U.S. State Department employee was sentenced Monday to serve nearly five years in federal prison for accessing young women’s online accounts from his computer at the American embassy in London and threatening to expose their sexually explicit photos.

Michael C. Ford, 36, sent “phishing” emails to women, specifically targeting members of sororities and aspiring models. He claimed to be a member of Google’s account deletion team, which doesn’t exist, to get them to hand over their passwords, prosecutors said.

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