Police check child porn e-mail reports

Authorities said Monday they are investigating reports of a possible hoax in which e-mail messages dealing with child pornography were sent to numerous unsuspecting Internet users in Maine.

Lt. Gary Boynton of the Waldo County Sheriff’s Department said the e-mail appears to come from a woman in Northport, with her return e-mail address placed on scores of messages enticing recipients to become involved in child pornography.

Boynton said the messages were apparently sent throughout the state and to other areas of the country.

“We’ve been getting calls from all over the state and from police departments outside the state,” Boynton said Monday. “Northport, Maine, is on the return address. So they have been contacting us all day.”

Detective Dotty Small of the Ellsworth Police Department said Monday that her department was contacted Sunday by a man from Northampton, Mass., who complained about receiving the e-mail.

Boynton said that Detective Jason Trundy is heading the investigation in Waldo County.

He said it appears that the woman identified as sending the e-mail is not their source and may be the victim of a hoax. Apparently a hacker was able to break into the Northport woman’s Internet service provider and sent the messages under her name.

Neither Trundy nor the woman identified in the e-mail could be reached for comment Monday. And the Internet service provider involved could not be confirmed. The case remains under investigation.