A "callous" teenager who hacked into women's Snapchat accounts and used nude photos to blackmail their friends has been jailed for two years. Jasin Bushi, 18, "completely violated" the victims’ privacy by hacking into at least seven women’s accounts between December 2020 and February last year and changing their passwords to lock them out.
Then, posing as the victims, he sent messages to their friends asking for rent money so they wouldn’t be kicked out – usually £200 or £300. Some of the friends realised something was wrong and called him out, but Bushi simply threatened to send nude pictures of the victim to all their contacts unless money was paid into his PayPal account.
Intimate pictures and videos of victims were posted publicly on numerous occasions and were seen by the victims’ family, friends and colleagues. Bushi denied actually posting them, which was accepted by the Judge.
Police from the Met’s Cyber Crime Unit first got involved in May 2021. Detectives found fake PayPal accounts with fictional personal details and email accounts tied to the victims’ names.
They linked Bushi to the fake accounts through two mobile numbers that he was using. When officers searched his home address in Camden, north London, they found on his phone some of the victims’ compromised personal banking details, emails and passwords and a note that read: “Hey, I’m struggling with rent. I’m literally short and I’m probably going to get kicked out if I can’t pay. I’ll pay back on Monday.”
One victim, whose friends, family and colleagues saw the posts, said she suffered a variety of negative psychological consequences since the hacking. She said she has felt humiliation and shame when she has had to face her family, has withdrawn socially at work and thinks her staff have lost respect for her.
She added: “Snapchat was a social media platform where I had years of stored treasured memories of photos and videos of my child, and I now feel nauseous using the app. I had a friend who, thinking she was helping me, lost a significant amount of money due to this incident and I feel indebted to her.
"I was fortunate enough to not be physically injured by this incident, but the long-lasting psychological effects impact me every day, and I feel that this is likely to be the case for a long time in the future.”
Another victim found out about private intimate images of her being posted in Snapchat while she was at work after her colleagues informed her.
She said: “I felt embarrassed, I left the office straight away in tears and had a few days off work because I felt I couldn’t face the people who have seen those private images. The feeling still haunts me now of when I first saw those photos on my public story, I would never wish that feeling upon anyone.”
Bushi pleaded guilty at Wood Green Crown Court to unauthorised access to a computer to facilitate the commission of an offence, fraud by false representation, possession of articles used in fraud and three counts of blackmail. He pleaded not guilty to three counts of disclosing private sexual photographs or films, with intent to cause distress, but those charges were left to lie on file.
Detective Constable Ed Sehmer, investigating officer from the Met’s Cyber Crime Unit, said: “Bushi completely violated the victims’ privacy all in an attempt to make a quick bit of cash. When his deception did not work, he resorted to blackmail. He is extremely cruel and callous and it was absolutely devastating for the victims who had their intimate images publicly posted.
“I’d like to thank the victims for courageously helping us with our investigation and I hope Bushi’s conviction offers them a small measure of comfort. This crime type often goes underreported as victims can often feel shame or embarrassment. There is nothing to feel ashamed about.
"I urge anyone to come forward and report to the police if this has happened to you. We will fully support you and treat you with sensitivity and dignity.”
He added: “To help prevent social media account compromises I recommend everyone uses two factor authentication and does not reuse passwords for various social media accounts. Good password hygiene involves changing passwords regularly, making them long, alphanumeric and containing upper- and lower-case letters with special characters.”
