Minnesota man indicted for harassing Colorado women with fake porn photos
Photo Courtesy: Olmsted County Jail
DENVER, Colo. (KMSP) - A Rochester, Minn. man has been federally indicted in Colorado after allegedly harassing and threatening multiple Colorado women online by posting fake pornographic photos of them and emailing links to their family members, professors and friends.
Eric Ronald Bolduan, 43, now faces multiple counts of stalking and harassment using interstate communications.
According to a criminal complaint, the online activity took place from Nov. 28, 2015 to Nov. 14, 2016. Bolduan would create online galleries containing legitimate non-pornographic pictures of the victim mixed in with pornographic photos of similar looking women. Links to those galleries would then be sent to the women's employers, coaches, relatives and teammates. The women also received threatening messages, in one case even telling a woman to commit suicide.
Investigators determined Bolduan was behind the online activity, ultimately seizing a "large volume of digital evidence" from his Rochester home.
In an interview with authorities, Bolduan admitted to targeting four Colorado women. Two of the women are twins and the other two are athletes at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In addition to these four victims, investigators believe there are more than 50 victims throughout the country.
In an email exchange with FBI investigators, Bolduan said he started posting the photo galleries online to "[draw] attention to revenge porn activity" but then his motivation changed "with the intent of upsetting and frightening the victims and making them fear for their lives."