Arrest Made In Webcam Highjacking Extortion Case

Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "CNN reports that Jared James Abrahams, a 19-year-old computer science student, has been arrested for allegedly hijacking the webcams of young women — among them reigning Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf — taking nude images, then blackmailing his victims to send him more explicit material or else be exposed. Abrahams admitted he had 30 to 40 'slave computers' — or other people's electronic devices he controlled — and has had as many as 150 total. His arrest came six months after a teenager identified in court documents as C.W. alerted authorities. She has since publicly identified herself as Cassidy Wolf, the recently crowned Miss Teen USA. Wolf received messages featuring pictures of her at her Riverside County address and others apparently taken months earlier when she lived in Orange County, says the criminal complaint (PDF). The message explained 'what's going to happen' if Wolf didn't send pictures or videos or 'do what I tell you to do' in a five-minute Skype videoconference, according to the criminal complaint. 'Either you do one of the things listed below or I upload these pics and a lot more (I have a LOT more and those are better quality) on all your accounts for everybody to see and your dream of being a model will be transformed into a pornstar (sic),' wrote Abrahams. FBI agents raided Abrahams' Temecula home in June and seized computers and hardware, cellphones and hacking software, court records show. Outside the court, Abrahams' lawyer, Alan Eisner, said that his client's family feels 'profound regret and remorse' over what happened. Eisner told CNN affiliate KTLA that Abrahams is autistic. 'The family wants to apologize for the consequences of his behavior to the families who were affected.'"

Comments

Autistic huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

The current excuse of the day when some nerdy low-life gets caught up to no good. Here is a hint, just because you have problems coping, it does not mean "I am autistic" is an excuse for being an arsehole.

Re:Autistic huh?

[dkleinsc]

If he is officially diagnosed, what would you say then?

I'd say that there's a significant difference between autism and sociopathy. An autistic person frequently doesn't understand how to interact with someone else, but they have enough empathy to know some basics of how *not* to interact.

Re:Autistic huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

As a father of a child on the autism spectrum who also has ADHD, I can tell you that those kids are out there. I can also tell you that you have NO IDEA how much work my wife and I have put in over his lifetime to get him to the point where he can be in a mainstream classroom, and generally come off as just "mildly aloof and a bit forgetful, but friendly" as opposed to "way out there, completely disorganized, and won't make eye contact." He has to work much harder to make friends and get his schoolwork done, but because of all the training, therapy, and professional help that we have gone through (and it takes all of us to do this), you might not be able to tell in a short interaction with him. (It's still the case that in any lengthy interaction with him, if you know what to look for you'll pick some of it up.)

So don't assume that ASD + ADHD = lazy parent. We also have a typical child, and you can tell the difference in parenting effort between the two easily, but only because we have put that effort in on the atypical one. Parenting is hard for anyone, and even harder for parents of kids with either ASD or ADHD, let alone both. Many parents in one boat or the other get plenty of sideways glances from people with the attitude you wrote above, and I feel it is very disrespectful to the massive amount of time, effort, and money we have spent on our children.

That said, I agree, it is completely irrelevant whether the blackmailer in this story was autistic or not, because the behavior is not something related to the behaviors autistic people generally express as part of that diagnosis. If his family (IF) is using that as an excuse, shame on them.

That's incredibly creepy

[RevDisk]

Well, here's hoping that Abrahams gets a fairly long sentence. Coercion and blackmail is coercion and blackmail, regardless of the circumstances.

Re:That's incredibly creepy

[Anonymous Coward]

What we learn from this:
If a student spies on someone its a crime but if government does the same it's not.
How does the saying go, do as I say but don't do what I do ?

Re:That's incredibly creepy

[Anonymous Coward]

And blackmail into sexual activities is rape, even if it doesn't meet the legal definition. Seems like it would violate a person in all the same ways.

No, it's not. It may be a "violation," but if it doesn't meet the definition of rape, it's not rape.

If you expand the definition of rape to include anything you don't like, it will end up being a word with no real meaning at all.

Re:That's incredibly creepy

[timeOday]

It won't get your pregnant or give you an STD or get you killed if you struggle. My vote is for preserving the word for its actual meaning.

I've never heard of autism causing extortion

[kawabago]

Someone with enough knowledge to commit this crime can't possibly hide behind autism as an excuse. This person formed intent, then a plan and executed the plan uncounted times. He communicated his intentions quite well which doesn't really point to autism. This young man is a sexual predator and probably always will be. Autism doesn't make you a pervert either, you have do that on your own.

NSA material

[Anonymous Coward]

He should join the NSA once he's out of jail. He has a bright future there.

Worse than a bully

[SirGarlon]

This is worse than bullying, it's sexual harassment and extortion.

And I agree, Ms. Wolf did a courageous thing to stand up and present evidence so this lowlife could be stopped.