Revere candidate target of cyber attack

Abrams, a married father of four, refused and within days graphic pornographic images appeared on the website, according to his campaign manager.

Last week, anti-Semitic and racist postings appeared on the site, including a doctored photograph of Abrams wearing a Star of David, which Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

The cyber attacks on Abrams have turned a barely publicized campaign for the Ward One seat into a criminal investigation and brought condemnation from local leaders.

Attorney General Martha Coakley’s office is investigating allegations of extortion and civil rights violations, according to George Rotondo Jr., a four-term Revere city councilor, and Kerri Abrams Rampelberg, who is Abrams’s sister and campaign manager.

“It really takes politics to a new low,’’ Rotondo said yesterday. “I’ve seen the rough-and-tumble politics of Revere, but this is beyond that. This is an attack on a family based on his religious beliefs.’’

The website, which was reported by FOX 25 News last week, was shutdown Friday night.

Abrams, 34, a property manager and lifelong Revere resident, was reluctant yesterday to talk about the attacks that were overshadowing his efforts to talk about campaign issues.

“I’m a family guy and they attacked my family,’’ Abrams said in a brief telephone interview. “That’s a line that was crossed. It’s terrible to do something like that when someone is trying to do something good.’’

Corey Welford, a spokesman for Coakley, said he could neither confirm nor deny that the office is investigating. But Derrek Shulman, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said, “We have been in close touch with law enforcement and we’re encouraged by the seriousness with which they are treating this incident.’’

He added that the website “is not offensive just to the Abrams family. This is offensive to all of us who value a respectful and civil campaign.’’

Abrams alerted authorities after the caller threatened to use the website to hurt Abrams unless he paid him, according to Rampelberg. She said she suspects the site was operated by someone who knows Abrams.

“It’s my personal belief this is someone with enough information about Corey personally and his campaign to attack him,’’ Rampelberg said.

One of Abrams’s three opponents in the City Council race, Michael J. Carter, said in a telephone interview that he doesn’t know who created the website, but thinks the creator wanted to make it look like it was Carter.

“I think this was a half-hearted attempt to make it look like I did the coreyabrams site because that is something I do part time,’’ said Carter, adding that he is a taxi driver, but also creates domain names and designs websites.

In fact, Carter said, he also received an anonymous call last month from a man who threatened to post gay pornography on a website he’d created under Carter’s name, unless he paid him $2,000 for the domain rights.

“I didn’t take it seriously,’’ Carter said. He said he didn’t alert authorities and doesn’t believe the caller ever followed through on his threats.

“I feel very badly for Corey and his whole family,’’ Carter said. He said he e-mailed Abrams on Friday night to tell him he thought the site was “distasteful’’ and, “I gave him some pointers on how he could have it pulled down.’’

Revere Mayor Thomas G. Ambrosino said he was unaware of the cyber attack on Abrams, whom he described as “a very decent, hard-working, competent individual.’’

“I’m certainly saddened by the fact that that’s how people engage in an effort to take down a candidate, but the Internet can be a very vile place,’’ Ambrosino said.