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Jares James Abrahams, a 19-year-old Temecula college freshman, was taken into custody Thursday on federal charges he attempted to extort the newly crowned Miss Teen USA and other young women.
Jared James Abrahams allegedly commandeered webcams of unsuspecting women in Canada, Ireland, Russia and across the United States, a federal criminal complaint unsealed Thursday said. It is alleged that Abrahams around the world by hijacking their computer’s webcams to capture naked images
Jared James Abrahams allegedly commandeered webcams of unsuspecting women in Canada, Ireland, Russia and across the United States, a federal criminal complaint unsealed Thursday said. It is alleged that Abrahams around the world by hijacking their computer’s webcams to capture naked images
The complaint states that once Abrahams had obtained the nude photos, it is alleged that he used those photos to blackmail the subjects to provide more images. Abrahams allegedly threatened to transform reigning Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf ‘s “dream of being a model … into a porn star” if the victim did not comply with his demands, according to a court record.
The FBI investigation was sparked after Wolf alerted authorities in March to a change in her Facebook password and an alleged sextortion demand from a person authorities said they later identified as Abraham.
Abrahams allegedly changed Miss Teen USA’s Twitter account photo to a half-naked image of her and then sent Miss Teen USA two images of her naked that were taken inside her home by her webcam months earlier, according to the criminal complaint.
Miss Teen USA, Cassidy Wolf, is not the only alleged victim in this matter. The complaint identifies at least seven victims identified by initials only and said that once confronted, Abrahams admitted his crimes in an interview with an FBI special agent.
FBI agents raided Abrahams Temecula home in June, seizing computers and hardware, cellphones and hacking software. The criminal complaint states the FBI also found evidence that he had commandeered 30 to 40 computers and gathered images of victims from Southern California and other parts of the world.
Abrahams was being held on $50,000 bail Thursday. A judge ordered that Abrahams, if freed, must wear a GPS tracker and would be prohibited from using a computer for anything other than academic work.