Who: Suspect’s ex-girlfriend Sister was Victim

When: 14 Mar 2019

# of records involved:

What happened: A computer hacker was paid to target a University of Central Florida student’s Snapchat account and extort her for nude photos.

How did it happen: John Thompson paid a computer hacker he found through the website 4chan to target his ex-girlfriend’s sister’s account in order to obtain nude pictures and videos. He supplied the hacker with the victim’s name, birthday, phone number and username. The computer hacker then messaged the victim and requested her login information for her Snapchat account. Eventually, the hacker was able to convince the victim to share her login information. The hacker then threatened to post all of the nude images and videos stored on her account to the internet if she called the police. 

Outcome: Thompson admitted to soliciting a computer hacker in order to get the woman’s Snapchat account in May, police said. He also admitted to sharing the personal information of the victim with the hacker in order to get explicit images, which he received through a shared Dropbox account with the hacker. Thompson is charged with two counts of extortion, offenses against users of computers, sexual cyber harassment and stalking (cyberstalking). He has since been arrested, booked into the Orange County Jail and has since been released.