Bess Carney, 27, made national news in January after being accused of a strange fake Internet harassment scheme.
The Vermont woman is accused of setting up an e-mail account in the name of a former co-worker after said co-worker began dating one of Carney’s friends. Carney allegedly then used the e-mail account to send herself harassing and bizarre e-mails. She then forwarded the e-mails on to other associates to make it look like her former co-worker was unstable and harassing her.
Carney apparently also reported to police that the former co-worker was harassing her via e-mail.
As a result of all this, she was arrested in January and charged with charged with one felony county of identity theft for allegedly pretending to be the former co-worker in the e-mails, along with misdemeanor charges of filing a false police report and unauthorized computer access. She faces up to 3 years in jail and a $5,000 fine on the felon identity theft charge, and up to six months in jail and a $500 fine on each of the misdemeanor charges.
Carney plead not guilty to all charges.
Source:
Woman said to have using co-worker’s e-mail to make fake threats. Associated Press, January 28, 2005.