Meet Nikki Rettelle, The Revenge Porn Victim Whose Naked Photos Were Everywhere

Even years after it occurred, Nikki Rettelle is still haunted by the naked photos of her that were posted to the Internet without her permission, the revenge porn victim told CNN Money in an exclusive interview Monday. An ex-boyfriend photographed her without her knowledge and then uploaded the images online.

Rettelle, 34, didn’t name her former lover in the interview, instead referring to him mockingly as “Mr. Wonderful.” The couple hadn’t dated for long when Rettelle realized he'd secretly recorded her.

One evening, Rettelle noticed an LED light shining from a pen holder. "Something compelled me to unscrew it, and as soon as it opened up ... my world started spinning," she said. It was just one of the several secret cameras “Mr. Wonderful” planted. He even had some at her home.

Before she became a victim of revenge porn, Rettelle didn’t even know anyone was capable of such cruelty, she said. The ex not only posted nude images of her but also added her birthday and what he thought was her correct telephone number and address.

"I would stay up almost all night, every night, just in a little cave, just searching more and finding more and more," she said. It turned out Rettelle’s naked photos were shared on hundreds of websites.

Rettelle’s lawyer, Elisa D'Amico, said porn is “becoming an epidemic," adding: "Victims have started flowing in. ... I have a lot of lawyers working at capacity on these projects."

Social media site Reddit has taken steps to prevent revenge porn being shared. “We did not want Reddit to be a part of that nightmare. We decided to take a public stance against the spreading of revenge porn and other nonconsensual nude or sexualized images,” Jessica Moreno, head of community at Reddit, wrote in a separate post for CNN Money Monday.

Law enforcement has begun to crack down on those who post and operate revenge porn websites. Most recently, Kevin Bollaert, 28, of San Diego was sentenced to 18 years in prison April 4 for six counts of extortion and 21 counts of identity theft. Bollaert operated ugotposted.com, which posted more than 10,000 sexually explicit images without consent.

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