External links
- Online dragnet to thwart paedophiles BBC News, December 18, 2003
- Police to trap online paedophiles BBC News, December 18, 2003
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| Operation Pin | |
|---|---|
| Operation Name | Operation Pin |
| Type | Child pornography investigation |
| Scope | Multinational |
| Roster | |
| Planned by | Virtual Global Taskforce |
| Executed by | U.K National Crime Agency, AU Australian Federal Police, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, CA Royal Canadian Mounted Police |
| Countries Participated | United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia |
| Mission | |
| Objective | To affect the credibility of the existing CP sites, and capture information from persons seeking CP sites |
| Method | Bait-websites/honeypots/dragnet |
| Timeline | |
| Date begin | Announced 18 December 2003 |
| Results | |
| Accounting | |
Operation Pin is an initiative of the Virtual Global Taskforce, which consists of the UK's National Crime Squad, the FBI, Interpol, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the Australian Hi-Tech Crime Centre/Australian Federal Police (AFP). Its stated aim is to identify pedophiles and other people who are using the internet to access child pornography. Announced on 18 December 2003, the operation is said to involve the creation and operation of a number of websites (so-called "honeypots") purporting to offer illegal images. While these websites will not contain child pornography images, they will be designed to look like the real thing so as to ensnare as many offenders as possible.
The websites will present visitors with a variety of options which, instead of leading to illegal images, lead to a law enforcement site that will inform them that their personal details have been recorded and that they have committed a crime. They will also be given details of appropriate helplines. It is unclear if the information recorded will be technical (for example, an IP address) or personal (for example, credit card details).
The stated purpose of Operation Pin is to cause people seeking out child pornography on the Internet to wonder whether they will find an illegal site or one operated by law enforcement agencies. It can thus be understood as a kind of deterrence.
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Operation Ore was a British police operation that commenced in 1999 following information received from US law enforcement, which was intended to prosecute thousands of users of a website reportedly featuring child pornography. It was the United Kingdom's biggest ever computer crime investigation, leading to 7,250 suspects identified, 4,283 homes searched, 3,744 arrests, 1,848 charged, 1,451 convictions, 493 cautioned and 140 children removed from suspected dangerous situations and an estimated 33 suicides. Operation Ore identified and prosecuted some sex offenders, but the validity of the police procedures was later questioned, as errors in the investigations resulted in many false arrests.
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Project Spade, an international police investigation into child pornography, began in October 2010 in Toronto, Canada. The investigation started when Toronto Police Service officers made on-line contact with a man who was alleged to have been sharing pornographic videos via the Internet and by mail. The investigation eventually covered over 50 countries. 348 people were arrested internationally, and 386 children were said to have been rescued. The primary producers were Igor Rusanov and Andrey Ivanov in Crimea, Ukraine, Markus Roth in Romania, and Paul Kruger in Germany.
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