Arrest made in connection with Miss Teen USA "sextortion" case

Multiple media outlets reported yesterday that 19 year-old Jared James Abrahams, a computer science student from Temecula, California, was arrested for his alleged connection to an online extortion scheme referred to as "sextortion."

A criminal complaint filed in the Central District Court of California alleges Abrahams violated 18 U.S.C 875(d), a federal extortion statute, after he "knowingly and willfully, and with the intent to extort money and other thing of value, did transmit in interstate and foreign commerce from Providence, Utah to Temecula, California, an email communication to victim C.W., and the email communication contained a true threat to injure the reputation of C.W."

C.W. is reportedly Cassidy Wolf, Miss Teen USA 2013. According to Greg Botelho with CNN, at the time Wolf contact police about the activity "[she] was not a national figure -- even though she was Miss Teen California -- and lived in an apartment and attended Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa." Wolf tweeted about the arrest late Thursday.

Update of my case: http://t.co/JqIFq6FlUT
— Cassidy Wolf (@CassidyWolf_) September 26, 2013

According to the complaint, Abrahams allegedly

compromised victims' computers and obtained nude photographs and/or videos of the victims through remote operation of the victims' web-enabled cameras ("webcams"). After taking the nude photographs and/or videos, [Abrahams]  . . .  contacted the victims by email, [and] the victims learned that [Abrahams] had remotely used the victims' webcams to take nude photographs and/or videos of the victims without their consent . . . .  

The complaint goes on to claim that Abrahams "threatened to publicly disclose on the victims' Internet social media accounts" the nude images he had obtained, unless the victim's either "(1) sent nude photographs, (2) sent a nude video, or (3) logged on to Skype and did what [Abrahams] told the victim to do for five minutes."