Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

The other night I was intoxicated and stupidly decided to go on MSN and find people on a chatroom to cam for, by cam I mean showing mild pornography of myself (I know, very stupid). Let me make clear that the one or two people I showed did NOT state their age. (Because had they did and they were underage I'm confident I wouldn't have cammed for them even though I was intoxicated). A little later that night I got an email from some agency or company (non government related) in the U.K. (I'm from USA) basically warning me that they could turn my info over and that paying a certain amount within 7 days could lessen any penalties. Something smells fishy about the email, though it does look VERY professional. The email is below in brackets and quotes.

["WARNING:THIS EMAIL CONTAINS A HIDDEN READ-NOTIFY PROGRAMME LINKED TO OUR SOFTWARE, WHICH WILL ENABLE US TO KNOW THE EXACT TIME AND DATE THIS EMAIL WAS OPENED.A HIDDEN DIGITAL SIGNATURE AND TIME-STAMP CERTIFICATE HAS BEEN EMBEDDED IN THIS EMAIL.THIS CERTIFICATE IRREVOCABLY LINKS THE BODY AND HEADERS OF THIS EMAIL TO THE DATE AND TIME THEY WERE DISPATCHED-AND MAY BE OFFERED AS COURT ADMISSIBLE EVIDENCE IF REQUIRED.

THIS NOTIFICATION IS NOT INTENDED FOR PERSONS WITH A JUVENILE STATUS(PERSONS UNDER THE AGE OF 18). CONTACT US VIA EMAIL FOR THE AGE VERIFICATION PROCESS IF YOU HOLD A JUVENILE STATUS.

ALL PERSONS DEEMED TO BE JUVENILE WILL NOT BE REQUIRED TO PAY ANY PENALTY AND/OR NO FURTHER ACTION WILL BE BROUGHT AGAINST THEM

REFERENCE NUMBER: (I'm censoring it out)

PERSONAL HOST DOMAIN: MSN.(I'm censoring it out).com

-MSN accounts/multiple MSN accounts are assigned a host address linked to their registered MSN address for legal purposes.

ALL CORRESPONDENCE MUST BE SENT TO OUR SUPPORT STAFF:

[email protected]

ALL LOGS HAVE BEEN RECORDED FROM A MONITORING SYSTEM AND\OR OTHER PORTALS BY AN INTERNATIONAL ON-LINE PROTECTION CENTRE(LONDON BASED) .

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO BLOCK, DELETE, IGNORE, THIS NOTIFICATION. YOUR INFORMATION HAS BEEN LOGGED BY OUR SOFTWARE. WE HAVE LOGGED YOUR IP ADDRESS, ISP PROVIDER, AND LOCATION.

During IP recorded conversation(s) and/or web activity, over an undisclosed time period, you have broken child protection law(s) put in place to safeguard minors on-line .A detailed list of effective child protection laws are included in this notification.

It is our job to determine which subjects are of high-priority (meaning a high risk for committing immediate sexual crimes against minors in an off-line setting). Our software has already obtained enough of your information to identify you in the case along with a substantial amount of recorded evidence. Our job is to submit this information to the independent database if we determine the subject is high-priority. Due to the high influx of sexual predators on the Internet, the possibility of carrying out every individual case for the statutory proceedings is non-existent. The effective method we use to ensure the safety of minors on-line is a penalty, followed by an irreversible record of your IP address stored on our agency's external database, for repeat offending and statistical purposes only.

YOUR PERSONAL DETAILS REMAIN STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

To avoid accumulating payments and/or statutory proceedings , �265 must be paid within the maximum permitted days .

PAYMENT MUST BE CONFIRMED BY CONTACTING OUR AGENCY DURING OPERATOR HOURS (PRESS 3 FOR PAYMENTS)

ALTERNATIVELY, PAYMENT CAN BE CONFIRMED VIA EMAIL

OUR AGENCY HAS SEVERAL PAYMENT OPTIONS AVAILABLE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING CRITERIA;

COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE

+44 (0)8000 33 77 89 *

AGENCY TEL:

+44 (0)870 471 56 65**

OPERATOR HOURS : MONDAY TO FRIDAY(2PM-6PM),

SATURDAY/SUNDAY(CLOSED)

OUT OF HOURS: EMAIL ONLY (10:00-00:00)

*FREE FROM UNITED KINGDOM LANDLINES ONLY,INTERNATIONAL CALLERS MAY EXPERIENCE DIFFICULTY WITH AN 0800 NUMBER

**RESERVED FOR INTERNATIONAL CALLERS

We have handed your details over to our accounts department, you will receive an automated bar-coded invoice immediately after contacting our agency. Your invoice will be updated and sent via email once full payment has been received.

We are required by the new legislation to inform you of the price breakdown; 58% -An International child exploitation fund contribution.42%-Updating and maintaining technology, to assist us in keeping dangerous predators off the street. After cleared payment, depending on the severity of your case reviewed by our consultants,you may be subject to complete an internet utilization programme, that you will adhere to.

Note, at this stage contact is via email for your privacy, following the correct procedure will eliminate the possibility of receiving postal notices/and or telephonic notification from our agency.

You are required to pay within a maximum of (7) days from opening this notification, without recurring charges .

NOTE, UNINTENTIONAL USER ERROR MAY AUTOMATICALLY RESULT IN STATUTORY PROCEEDINGS

FURTHER READING:

-Under the law, child sexual abuse is an "umbrella" term describing criminal and civil offences in which an adult engages in sexual activity with a minor or exploits a minor for the purpose of sexual gratification.

-Our agency is affiliated to the organized crime agency. This means that the we are subject to scrutiny by the Board and must account to the agency for public expenditure purposes. However, as an affiliate, we have full operational independence, and therefore our own brand and identity.

-We are committed to protecting your privacy. We comply with the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998 and aim to maintain consistently high level of security in our processing of personal and/or sensitive personal data

-If you have received this e-mail in error, or should you have discrepancies an investigation will be lodged.

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO APPEAL THIS NOTIFICATION

All expenses will be met by the subject unless the subject has been acquitted-The agency will be responsible in this case.

WE ARE NOT OBLIGED TO DISCLOSE RECORDED EVIDENCE , UNLESS THE SUBJECT LAUNCHES AN APPEAL AGAINST THE INITIAL NOTIFICATION.

-The payment of the outstanding penalty enters you into a 'binding' contract, which may be revoked by management at any-time without a furnishing of reasons, should you fail to comply with child protection law(s) in the future.

It is illegal, on-line and off-line, to:

- Entice or coerce a child under 16 to engage in sexually explicit conduct

- Import or transport obscenity using telecommunications public networks

- Knowingly receive child pornography

- Advertise child pornography

- Depict minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct (even in pseudo-form)

- Depict someone engaged in sexually explicit conduct who appears to be a child

- Advertise or promote sexually explicit conduct by giving the impression that minors are engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

- Enter age restricted website(s)

Pseudo-photographs, those images which appear to be photographs whether made by computer-graphics or otherwise, are also covered under the child pornography laws.

The law also protects children against luring or attempts to lure them into an off-line meeting for the purposes of performing illegal sexual acts, or coercing them to provide sexually explicit photos of themselves

Harmful to Minors Act

The Act defines a minor as "any person under 16 years of age" and material that is "harmful to minors" as:

"Any communication, picture, image, graphic image file, article, recording, writing, or other matter of any kind that is obscene or that:

(A) the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find, taking the material as a whole and with respect to minors, is designed to appeal to, or is designed to pander to, the prurient interest;

(B) depicts, describes, or represents, in a manner patently offensive with respect to minors, an actual or simulated sexual act or sexual contact, an actual or simulated normal or perverted sexual act, or a lewd exhibition of the genitals or post-pubescent female breast; and

(C) taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors."

Website Disclaimers:Webmasters' obligations

Website content (quality, accuracy and use)

Restrictions on who can use the website

Report and remove obscene material uploaded to their website

Liability for the actions of users on their website

Legal jurisdiction"]

Let me point out a few things. They knew my full name in the subject line which is something they ONLY could have gotten by searching for my Facebook profile using my email. It also says the agency is not open on Saturday and Sunday however I recieved this message and was on cam on a Saturday. The whole price deal just doesn't seem right to me either, seem like extortion to me.

So my question is 4 parts. 1. Do you think this is legit, or is it a scam?

2. Do they have anything on me that could get me in CA....because I don't believe I did anything wrong. 3. What would be my smartest next step, I simply don't know whether to respond to this email or to ignore it. 4. I would rather just pay the money than fight this in court, would this be smart?

-Thank you

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