A teenager has been jailed after allegedly trying to release sextortion photos of Cassidy Wolf, the reigning Miss Teen USA.
Jared James Abrahams, a teen from Orange County, California, has been jailed this week for allegedly trying to blackmail Wolf after filming her naked by logging onto her webcam.
Abrahams was arrested by FBI for blackmailing and threatening to release naked photos of Wolf into the public domain.
The 19-year-old has been charged with cybercrimes and extortion.
Wolf was crowned Miss Teen USA in August this year. The sextortion photo plot is believed to have taken place before she won the pageant. The suspect in this case was finally identified after months of investigation.
Teen Miss USA said that someone hacked into her webcam and stole photos of her. He could have also watched her through the webcam. She soon received an anonymous email trying to blackmail and extort her to keep the pictures private.
Abraham was finally arrested and he reportedly confessed to the crime. He also said he used the scheme on a number of other women.
A police report states: "Abrahams used malicious software to disguise his identity in order to capture nude photos or videos of victims through remote operation of cameras on their home computers without their consent."
Soon after Abrahams emailed the sextortion photos to his victims, he would then threaten to post them on their social media accounts unless they sent him more naked photos or "engaged in a Skype session with him and did what he said for five minutes."
In an August interview with Today, Wolf said: "I was terrified. I started screaming, bawling my eyes out. I was on the phone with my mom, and I felt helpless because I wasn't sure what to do, so it was a very terrifying moment. You would never think somebody would be watching you in your room and this guy had been,' Wolf said. 'The thought of that just gave me nightmares."
The incident of her computer being hacked reportedly occurred four months before she was crowned. "It happened to me when I was a normal girl and it can happen to anybody. The message is to tell somebody."
