The 19 year old charged in the sextortion attempt of Miss Teen USA turns out to be one of her former high school classmates, which was a surprise even to her.
From Reuters:
Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf said on Friday it was “weird” to learn that the 19-year-old California man charged with hacking into her webcam and taking nude photos in a so-called “sextortion” case, was a high school classmate.
Wolf, 19, told NBC’s “Today” show she has “mixed feelings” a day after the arrest of Jared Abrahams, and that part of her feels sorry for him.
“It’s weird for me to be able to put a face to the person who did this to me and to know that it’s somebody I went to high school with,” the beauty queen told “Today.”
“He was young, my age, and I just think it’s sad that he chose to do this and now has kind of put himself in this big dilemma,” Wolf said. “I don’t think he realizes the consequences that he’s done and the people that he hurt.”
Wolf and Abrahams are both from Temecula, in Southern California. The beauty queen told NBC she was not friends with Abrahams in high school, but knew his name and routinely passed him in the hallway.
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It’s creepy enough to find out that someone has been secretly taking nude photos of you in your bedroom for months without your knowledge, but I think there’s something especially disturbing about it to realize that it was someone who was actually acquainted with you, even to a minor extent, in real life.
Investigators found photos and video of the victims on Abrahams’ computer and cell phone when they searched his home, according to the criminal complaint and reported by the Today show. He is alleged to have taken over between 30 to 40 computers in the course of obtaining the images of the victims.
Abrahams has admitted to authorities that he infected his victims’ computers with malware in order to gain unauthorized access to their webcams and take the photos, and to using those photos to try and extort the victims. His attorney claims that Abrahams wants to take responsibility and apologize to the victims and their families, according to Reuters.
Abrahams’ attorney Alan Eisner said his client and his family want to “accept the responsibility” and “apologize to the victims, not only the girls, but their families.”
“He acknowledges that the violation and the intrusion is a substantial violation of their privacy, their dignity,” said Eisner in a phone interview, adding that Abrahams until recently attended college and is on the autism spectrum which “affects his ability to engage in reciprocal communications.”
Abrahams was released Thursday on $50,000 bond and must wear a GPS tracker. He is also prohibited by the court from using a computer other than for schoolwork. According to Reuters, the judge ordered that monitoring software be installed on a computer in Abrahams’ family’s home. He is expected to appear in court next on November 4th, pending an indictment.
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Comments
No word yet on whether Abrahams can hack into his court-ordered GPS tracker…. uhhhhh, in the course of his ‘schoolwork’.
This story is a close update to “Revenge of the Nerds,” the “eat a pi” scenes.
The kid is smart, but stupid. He needs to be hired by somebody who can make use of his skills and creativity, and watched like a hawk.
No. He needs to go to prison.
Did somebody say NSA?
Most crimes are performed by someone who knew the victim.
It’s a sad introduction into the world of crime for her, being violated in such a way.
At least she can be thankful that it was not physical violence, or another crime of passion that opened her eyes to the seedier nature of certain human beings.
As to the perpetrator, he’s only sorry because he got caught. If he were truly repentant beforehand, he would have erased the files, contacted the victims and apologized long before.
These types of people are despicable.
I can see the defense strategy materializing, now:
“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my client was a typical high school nerd… a typical ugly nerd but with feelings and emotions… but a nerd with real feelings and emotions just like you and I have. Like we all have.”
[long pause to look the jurors in the eye]
“My client acted in desperation in the only way he knew how, because he was spurned… SPURNED I SAY… by this cruel, heartless, so-called ‘beauty-queen’, who in reality was a serial-manipulator of young males in the prime of their lives and…. yes, ohhhhhhh-so-vulnerable…”
“Smear the victim” – A classic, yet ultimately self-defeating defense.
As John Adams said, “Facts are stubborn things.”
It’s creepy enough to find out that someone has been secretly taking nude photos of you in your bedroom for months without your knowledge
It’s a hard way to learn a lesson about securing mics and cameras around you. This is one incident. Guess how many more are currently going on, but won’t get discovered.
This kid is obviously some kind of major jerkoff.
He will now encounter the Streisand Effect. Which is when you make a big enough asshole of yourself, and it gets HUGE coverage in the news and the Internet, it is what will come up anytime any Googles you. Like an employer. Forever.
Good luck getting a job there, perv.
Not to mention the criminal record he’ll own.