The New New Internet » sextortion

Alleged Sextortionist Charged with 13 Counts of ID Theft

Camille Tuutti — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:27:40 +0000

A 26-year-old Minnesota man has been charged with identity theft for allegedly hacking into Facebook accounts and pilfering pictures of women to post on adult websites, The Associated Press reported.

Prosecutors say Timothy Noirjean allegedly contacted the victims online and lured them into befriending him and handing over their personal information. He then would reset passwords and posing as the account holder, contacting the victims’ friends to obtain more information.

Noirjean allegedly stole photographs of eight women and authorities said they could not do anything to get those images taken down from sexually explicit websites.

“We can hold the perpetrator accountable, but we are unable to remove their photos from the worldwide web, so they are out there, along with identifying information,” Washington County Attorney Pete Orput told AP.

According to reports, police found 235 other women’s email addresses and security information, as well as 92 folders full of women’s names and photographs.

Prosecutors have charged the Woodbury man with 13 counts of identity theft. It is also unknown whether Noirjean has hired an attorney lawyer and he was unreachable for comments yesterday, AP reported.

According to the criminal complaint, Noirjean admitted to the scheme but denied he was unaware that what he was doing was wrong.

AP said Noirjean is due in court May 26.

Celeb Hack Prompts FBI Investigation

Camille Tuutti — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 18:40:19 +0000

The FBI has launched a probe to find out who hacked into actress Vanessa Hudgens’ Gmail account, as well as other celebrities’ personal emails, according to media reports.

After breaking into Hudgens’ account, the hacker spread nude photos and videos of the 22-year-old “High School Musical” starlet, according to gossip website TMZ.

Hudgens is reported to be just one of as many as 50 celebrities who have fallen prey to sextortionists, who steal nude pictures and personal information of actresses and musicians and then try to sell them, TMZ said.

Only last December, a duo of alleged hackers in Germany was accused of breaking into the accounts of Justin Timberlake, Ke$ha and Lady Gaga in an attempt to steal unreleased songs and issue blackmail threats over intimate photographs.

However, whether those two cases are related has yet to be determined, The Register said.

Canadian Hacker ‘Sextorted’ Hundreds of Young Girls

Cooper Smith — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 18:35:45 +0000

A man in Canada used his hacking skills to break into young girls’ computers, pose as someone they knew, then convince them to undress in front of their webcams. Those who did not continue with his game were subjected to threats of having the videos posted online, according to Ottawa Citizen.

Daniel Lesiewicz, a 30-year-old Quebec resident, managed to terrorize hundreds of underage girls before police caught up with him. Authorities were able to identify and trace only 25 of the victims, including a girl who was so humiliated she attempted suicide.

Testifying last week, another victim said Lesiewicz threatened to post a video of her online after she posed once, but refused a second time. He then sent the video link to her, her friends and her brother’s friends. The threats went on for three weeks to a month, the young girl said.

Lesiewicz pleaded guilty earlier this year to 89 charges, including luring a child, distributing child pornography, impersonation and extortion.

‘Sextortion’ Becoming More Common as Cyber Crime

Camille Tuutti — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:43:26 +0000

Federal prosecutors and child-safety advocates say they are seeing a rise in cases of online sexual extortion, also called “sextortion.”

According to experts, teens who text naked cellphone photos of themselves or show off their bodies on the web are being contacted by pornographers who threaten to expose their behavior to friends and family unless they pose for more explicit porn, The Associated Press reports.

While no one currently tracks the numbers of cases involving sextortion in state and federal courts, prosecutors and others point toward several recent high-profile examples victimizing teens in a dozen states. In Alabama, a 24-four-old man was sentenced to 18 years in prison after admitting sending threatening emails on social-networking sites extorting nude photos from more than 50 young women in Alabama, Pennsylvania and Missouri.

In Wisconsin, a 18-year-old male received 15 years in prison in February after posing as a girl on Facebook to trick male high-school classmates into sending him nude cellphone photos, which he then used to extort them for sex.

More recently, a young man in California was last week convicted for sextorting a 16-year-old girl after photographing sexual act and then threatening to release photos and video if she did not agree to have sex with him. The man was ultimately charged with forcing the girl to performing a sexual act and communicating with a minor with the intent of committing a sexual offense.

Accused PC Consultant Pleads Not Guilty in Sextortion Case

Michael W. Cheek — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:07:53 +0000

A computer consultant from California has pleaded not guilty to charges that he engaged in sextortion by hacking into the computer of victims, using personal information to extort explicit videos.

Luis Mijangos of Santa Ana, Calif., entered his plea in a Los Angeles federal court earlier this week, an assistant U.S. attorney said. Mijangos is currently free on a $10,000 bail.

Court documents allege Mijangos used peer-to-peer file sharing networks to infect more than 100 users with malware which enabled him to take control of webcams and access videos and files stored on the computer. He would then contact the female victims, saying he would release the content unless the victims provided him with sexually explicit content.

The majority of victims were minors, according to media reports. Mijangos also is accused of using hijacked computers of teenage males to request sexually explicit videos and images from the victim’s girlfriends.

He also stands accused of using hacked information to engage in payment card fraud.