As photographs of a naked woman surfaced on The Wolf Web late Wednesday night, Anita Flick, a lecturer in biological sciences, found herself embroiled in a battle with the Web site to disprove she was the woman in the images.

The images sparked a thread of comments, debating whether the photos were manipulated by whoever posted them. By Thursday night, there were multiple photos reappearing on the site.

Flick alleged the images were manipulated and her face was placed on a body that was not her own.

She said she was distraught after a tearful day of phone calls to her lawyer, America Online, University administrators and other parties.

“I don’t know who shopped it, started it or found it,” Flick said, explaining that the original images were taken from her AOL hometown account. She said she had no knowledge of the account’s existence and suggested that another party had gone in and posted the images.

A student warned Flick about the photos Wednesday and she began contacting AOL the next morning to have the photos removed from her site. She claimed the pictures may have stemmed from shots taken of her in 2003 following her class reunion.

She said she sent a real headshot, taken by her husband, to the University.

Flick said she did the original cropping herself.

She confirmed Thursday night that the State Bureau of Investigation was involved in the case and would pursue filing criminal charges against the alleged perpetrators.

“Kids make mistakes, and kids screw up,” Flick said. “But it’s almost like students don’t even have a conscience anymore.”

Flick administered her class’ final exam as scheduled on Thursday morning but warned she was aware of the thread and knew who was involved.

She denounced the images and told her class that she was not the one in the photos.

The photos hit The Wolf Web after a user known as “snowman” began a thread with the images and opened commentary for other users.

The user could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Jacob Morgan, alumnus and owner of the site, said he could not confirm the identity of the user.

He said he had taken “a reasonable effort” to remove the images from the The Wolf Web. Moderators took down the photos, but users continued to re-post them later in the day.

According to Morgan, the site has dealt with similar issues in the past with photos exposing students, but it has never featured images of faculty or administration.

He said he has never received complaints from the students who were exposed by the photos.

“I guess the embarrassing factor has been too considerable for them to even contact us about it,” Morgan said.

He pointed to a strong relationship with Campus Police and the Office of Student Conduct and said he would proceed based on the recommendations of the parties affected.

“We do what we can. We hate to censor content, but we want to preserve the lady’s reputation,” Morgan said. “I have a feeling people will have some pretty strong feelings on how to deal with this.”

He urged people to follow the proper channels to contact in response to the images, citing Student Conduct and Public Safety as appropriate places to report similar problems.

Flick described her style of teaching as inviting and said she encourages students to approach her on a first-name basis. She admitted each semester she receives emails and comments from her students that express their attraction to her, but she said this is the first time anyone has crossed the line.

She said the woman in the photos looks like she is much taller than her body frame and said she is uncomfortable appearing in public in a bathing suit, and would never post nude images of herself.

“People feed off of gossip, and people want to believe the worst,” she said, but she said University officials were trying to help her through the ordeal.

She said she received a great deal of support from the Office of the Provost and Department Head Damian Shea, with whom she was in contact throughout the day.

“I don’t know anyone else at N.C. State who is as dedicated to the success and well-being of the students here,” Shea said. “She’s a consummate professor and a person of the utmost integrity.”

When determining the legitimacy of the photographs, it is important to evaluate several different components, said Robert Fiete, chief technologist at the space systems division of ITT Industries in Rochester, NY.

He said there are two ways to generate artificial photos – including manipulating a real photograph or creating a new one.

According to Fiete, it is important to look for inconsistencies, including the bluriness and the tone of the image, to accurately judge the photographs.

“What’s very difficult today is making high resolution images that fool people,” he said. “Most of the images you see floating around on the Internet aren’t very high resolution.”

He said the best test for detecting false images is the human eye.

“Eighty or 90 percent of detecting fake imagery is just looking at it,” Fiete said.

Paul Cousins, director of Student Conduct, said he believes the images are photoshopped.

“I’ve read the thread, or most of the thread, and I know there was some discussion and some belief on the part of some of the contributors to The Wolf Web that those might be actual photographs really involving a faculty member of ours, and that’s not the case,” he said.

Cousins said he is working with The Wolf Web staff to determine the identity of the person or persons who originally posted the images and who may have photoshopped them.

“It’s my hope that that will result in a conversation with myself and the individual,” he said.