A California man has been charged with blackmailing over 350 women into sending him nude photos after hacking into their Facebook, Skype and email accounts.
Karen ‘Gary’ Kazaryan, 27, is accused of hacking into the victims’ accounts and changing their passwords, locking them out of their own online accounts.
He then searched emails or other files for naked or semi-naked pictures of the victims, as well as other information, such as passwords and the names of their friends. He then posed online as the women, sent instant messages to their friends – and, somehow, persuaded those friends to get undressed so that he could view and take pictures of them.
Even when the victims discovered that they weren’t actually speaking with their friends, Kazaryan was frequently able to use the photos he already had to blackmail the victims to strip on camera.
He allegedly posted nude photos of some victims on their Facebook pages when they failed to comply with his demands.
Investigators reckon that Kazaryan victimized more than 350 women, but say they haven’t been able to track them all down. A search of Kazaryan’s computer revealed around 3,000 pictures of nude or semi-nude women, some taken from their online accounts, and some taken by Kazaryan on Skype.
Kazaryan’s been charged with 15 counts of computer intrusion and 15 counts of aggravated identity theft. If convicted on all counts, he faces up to 105 years in federal prison.
