The FBI says its learned the real secret behind the success of the nasty revenge porn website isanyoneup.com: The site operator, 27-year-old Hunter Moore, was paying a hacker to steal nude photos of innocent people right from their email accounts. 
 
 Moore and alleged hacker Charles Evens, 25, were arrested today on conspiracy and computer intrusion charges for allegedly stealing photos of hundreds of victims. 
 
 Moore’s site began as a revenge porn site, inviting embittered ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends to submit explicit photos of their former partners. But to keep populating the site with new images, Moore allegedly instructed Evens to hack email accounts to steal private photos, for which he paid Evens $200 a week via Paypal. 
 
 The two apparently began discussing the arrangement in 2011 via email. By December 2011, with the deal in place, Evens allegedly sent Moore an email seeking $250 for nude pictures of “6 guys and 6 girls.” 
 
 Moore was allegedly so pleased with the transaction that he wrote Evens in January “hack all week for me.” More images poured in, and more money was sent to the Paypal account to compensate Evens, according to the document. 
 
 The two have been charged with 15 counts, including charges for hacking and identity theft. 
 
 Moore has never tried to hide his role in the revenge porn web site, but has defended it in television interviews, blaming victims for taking the photos that his site published. 
 
 “I don’t know how you can point a finger at me; you took the picture,” Moore said in 2012 TV interview defending his site to a victim whose photo was allegedly posted on the site by her boyfriend. “At the end of the day, it started with you and you took these pictures. I don’t know how old you are, but I’m sure you’re smart and go to school. I mean, it’s 2012; what do you expect to happen? Somebody’s going to monetize this and I was the person to do it.” ||||| Two California men – including the creator and operator of a so-called “revenge porn” website -- were charged Thursday with computer crimes and ID theft stemming from an alleged conspiracy to hack into email accounts and steal nude photos that were later posted on the Internet site. 
 
 Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Hunter Moore, 27, of Woodland, Calif., near Sacramento, and Charles Evens, 25, of Studio City, Calif., without incident at their respective homes. They were expected to make initial court appearances later Thursday in the districts in which they were arrested. 
 
 Moore is a notorious character as a result of his creation and operation of the now-defunct revenge porn website isanyoneup.com. The BBC several years ago named him the "most-hated man on the Internet." 
 
 Both men are charged in the 15-count federal grand jury indictment with conspiracy, seven counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information and seven counts of aggravated identity theft. 
 
 “The moral of the story is that his revenge porn site wasn’t a good enough business model, and that he had to engage in illegal activity to populate the site with pictures,” said Wes Hsu, assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California and head of the office’s Cyber and Intellectual Property Crime Section. 
 
 Neither the defendants nor their attorneys could immediately be reached by NBC News for comment. 
 
 If convicted, Moore and Evens each face a maximum of up to five years in federal prison on the conspiracy and computer hacking counts, prosecutors said. Additionally, the aggravated identity theft carries a mandatory two-year sentence, which would be served consecutively to any other sentence. 
 
 Charlotte Laws' daughter was the victim of photo hacking at the hands of the now-defunct site isanyoneup.com. Laws, who has been called the "Erin Brockovich of revenge porn" discusses how she took down the person who posted pictures of her daughter. 
 
 According to the 13-page indictment, there were least eight primary victims of the conspiracy, described only by their initials. “Nude images of (the victims) … and others” were posted on Moore’s site, isanyoneup.com, it said. 
 
 The indictment also alleges Evens gained access to the email accounts of “hundreds of victims by various means, including by ‘hacking.’” 
 
 Prosecutors said Moore’s site featured “revenge porn,” where “nude or explicit photos of victims (were) submitted by other individuals without the victim’s permission for purposes of revenge.” 
 
 Moore needed more material for his site and conspired with Evens, starting at an unknown date and continuing through May 2, 2012, to illegally gain access to victim’s computers to obtain more photos, prosecutors said. 
 
 Moore allegedly instructed Evens to gain unauthorized access to victims’ email accounts and sent payments to Evens in exchange for nude photos he obtained, according to the indictment. Moore then posted the illegally obtained photos on his website, without the victims’ consent, it said. 
 
 In an interview on "MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts" in December, activist and mom Charlotte Walls described how a hacker gained access to compromising photos of hundreds of people across the country, including her daughter, first through Facebook and then by getting into her email account. 
 
 “People are being humiliated, hurt,” said Walls, who helped push through a California law banning revenge porn. “The people on the website then harassed the particular individual who is a victim on the site and tried to get her fired from her job, trying to ruin her job essentially. It’s really a horrendous thing that happens.” 
 
 Hsu said the case offers a good lesson for email users. 
 
 “It’s a reminder to everybody that you have to be diligent when you set up your passwords and security questions,” Hsu said. “I think people take for granted that nobody is going to bother trying to get into their email account. I view it is a very important, private thing for most people. Everybody should make themselves as hard a target as possible.” 
 
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– The man behind a "revenge porn" site—which encouraged people to post naked photos of their exes to get back at them—allegedly obtained his nude content a second way: via a hacker who grabbed photos from personal email accounts. FBI agents yesterday arrested Hunter Moore, who ran the now-defunct IsAnyoneUp.com; he was charged with conspiracy, hacking, and identity theft. (In case his name sounds familiar, NBC News notes his site once earned Moore the title of the "most-hated man on the Internet.") Charles Evens, the man who allegedly did the dirty work, was similarly arrested and charged. Wired reports the two allegedly began emailing about the idea in late 2011. Evens allegedly sent Moore an email asking for $250 for nude pictures of "6 guys and 6 girls" in December of that year; a month later, Moore allegedly replied with, "hack all week for me." Prosecutors say the hacking ended May 2, 2012. The two face up to 7 years in prison. Wired shares this 2012 quote, from Moore to a woman whose picture reportedly appeared on his site: "I don't know how you can point a finger at me; you took the picture. I'm sure you're smart and go to school. I mean, it's 2012, what do you expect to happen? Somebody's going to monetize this and I was the person to do it."