The feds arrested a “keyboard coward” from Plymouth who they say waged a years-long online campaign to humiliate, harass, threaten and ruin the reputation of a woman who appears to have been a casual acquaintance.

“Enjoy Your Exposure You Naughty Bimbo. You Belong To The Internet,” James Florence allegedly wrote under one of his many fake accounts depicting the likeness of the target of the brutal campaign prosecutors say he maintained since late 2017.

His alleged intentions with the content were made clear, as personally identifiable information he shared about the woman came along with a direction to “Post & Share Her Everywhere. Make The (expletive) Famous.”

James Florence Jr., 36, of Plymouth, was arrested Wednesday morning and hauled into federal court in Boston’s Seaport for an initial appearance on a single count of cyberstalking. Magistrate Judge M. Page Kelley ordered Florence held until a formal detention hearing scheduled for Monday. Florence’s alleged actions could land him in federal prison for five years.

“The defendant’s alleged actions represent a chilling window into the dangers of online harassment and cyberstalking in the digital age,” acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said in a statement. “Using advanced technology to manipulate, torment, and publicly humiliate someone for years is not just reprehensible, it is criminal. No one should have to endure the kind of relentless harassment and devastating psychological toll that we allege this victim has bravely endured.”

“We will continue to use every resource available to protect victims of these crimes and to bring justice to keyboard cowards who abuse the digital landscape for their own malicious purposes,” he continued.

The victim, a Massachusetts resident and university professor, first discovered that someone was posting photographs of her and her underwear on Craigslist’s casual sexual encounters listings without her knowledge or consent, according to an FBI affidavit supporting the charges. The photos of her underwear appeared to her to have been taken at her former residence, where Florence had at least sometimes attended parties.

The online campaign escalated in 2020, when the victim said she was messages by multiple accounts on X, which was then known as Twitter, with the same photos of her underwear. Then a Twitter account was created to showcase images of the victim and tagged the victim’s actual X account.

“At the time, the Victim primarily used Twitter for professional reasons. The Victim did not want her professional connections seeing the obscene tweets in which she was tagged because she felt it would mar her reputation,” FBI Special Agent Laura Macrorie wrote in the affidavit. “As a result, she deleted her Twitter account.”

The harassment grew in size when seven different accounts on a pornographic website associated with so-called “revenge porn” started posting her photos, as well as manipulated images to make her appear nude or partially nude. The affidavit states the accounts uploaded 128 unique images about 687 times.

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Then, between June 2023 and April 2024, at least five Reddit accounts were created to share similar images. In all, the feds say the content was posted to at least 13 websites.

Florence allegedly directed viewers to spread the images and the victim’s personal information far and wide. The victim said she received at least 60 emails, phone calls and text messages from bad people who threatened to send the images to her co-workers or students if they didn’t do what they told her, which included demands that she produce and send them pornographic images of herself.

“Today, the FBI arrested James Florence Jr. for allegedly trying to hide behind his keyboard to sadistically cyberstalk and surveille the victim in this case, inflicting immense trauma and pain on both her and her family,” said Jodi Cohen, the special agent in charge of the Boston FBI.