DAVID%SIMSC@IBM1.CC.Lehigh.Edu (02/04/90)
From: The Washington Post, February 4, 1990. Page 18. Byline Reuter. "Cleveland, [Ohio] Feb. 3 -- An anthropologist accused of international computer fraud involving information about AIDS and a possible computer virus was held without bail while a judge considered reports on his sanity, authorities said today." "Joseph Popp, 39, appeared before a U. S. magistrate to face charges that the computer disk he created was part of an international blackmail scheme, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Arbeznik." "The Cleveland Plain Dealer said that Popp, while in England, mail the IBM data disks to as many as 26,000 hospitals, businesses and government agencies worldwide." "The disks claimed to provide information on AIDS prevention but at the end of the computer program Popp allegedly said a computer virus would be unleashed unless $378 was sent to a post office box in Panama."