Operation Ore

Operation Ore was a large-scale international police operation, commencing in 1999, intended to indict thousands of users of child pornography websites.

Origins

The operation followed the liquidation of Landslide Inc., a credit clearance intermediary based in Fort Worth, Texas. In April 1999, United States Postal Inspection Service Texas had received an internal complaint via postal inspector Robert Adams. Adams had received a tip from an acquaintance in St Paul, Minnesota. The man, who has never been named, provided information on a website advertising child pornography. Adams contacted nearby Dallas police department and Steve Nelson, a Dallas police officer accessed various child pornography sites using his credit card.

Landslide

Landslide provided payment systems for adult webmasters. These systems were automated, webmasters could sign up to the system online and people accessing the websites would go through the payment or login system before being granted access. The principle systems were AVS for Adult Verification System and Keyz because it operated via the keyz.com domain name owned by Landslide.

An adult classified section of a Landslide website allegedly included postings offering to trade Keyz passwords. USPIS and Dallas Police brought their investigation to the attention of Terri Moore, an assistant district attorney with a tough reputation.

The operation led to the seizure of user information of thousands of persons who were alleged to have accessed child pornography using credit cards. It also resulted in the arrests of several prominent individuals, including The Who's guitarist Pete Townshend.

External links

• "Child porn suspects set to be cleared in evidence shambles" Sunday Times 3 July 2005