Suspect charged in Miss Teen USA extortion case

A teenage boy has been arrested and charged with extortion after allegedly attempting to blackmail Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf with a set of nude photos.

Jared James Abrahams, 19, was taken into federal custody in Orange County, California on Thursday (26Sep13) amid claims he had hacked into the webcams of at least seven women from around the world to obtain naked pictures of them. He is then said to have used the shots to extort other raunchy images and videos from his reported victims in order to keep the pictures private.

Wolf refused the demand and instead called in police, who handed the case to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officers in March (13).

Abrahams, from Temecula, California, has been released on $50,000 bail, on the condition that he wear an electronic monitoring bracelet and only use a computer for school work.

If convicted, the suspect faces up to two years in federal prison.

Wolf, who was crowned Miss Teen USA in August (13), previously spoke out about the extortion case in an effort to educate young girls and women about the dangers of cyberspace.

She said, "This all happened before I had a title. I was just a normal girl in high school. This next year I'm just so excited to be able to share my story and raise awareness in young teens about what can happen."