Southern California man arrested in 'sextortion' case

LOS ANGELES - A southern California man was arrested Tuesday, accused of hacking into Facebook, Skype and email accounts and extorting the women into showing him naked photos.

Karen “Gary” Kazaryan, 27, of Glendale, Cali., was arrested after a grand jury returned a 30-count indictment last Friday.

Kazaryan is accused of hacking into hundreds of Facebook, Skype and email accounts and changing passwords in order to lock the victims out of their own accounts. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Kazaryan then searched email or other files for naked or semi-naked photos of the victims. The FBI said he also looked for password information on the victims’ friends.

Authorities said he used the information to pose online as women, sending instant messages to the victims’ friends and persuaded the friends to remove their clothing so he could view and take pictures of them.

According to the FBI, once the victims realized they were not speaking with a friend, Kazaryan would use the photos he had obtained of their naked bodies to convince them to get naked again on camera.

Kazaryan is charged with 15 counts of computer intrusion and 15 counts of aggravated identity theft.

Investigators estimated that Kazaryan victimized more than 350 women, but have not identified all of the victims whose accounts were hacked. FBI computer specialists found 3,000 pictures of nude or semi-nude women on Kazaryan’s computer.

If found guilty, Kazaryan could face up to 105 years in federal prison.

Anyone who thinks they may have been a victim in the case should contact the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office at 310-477-6565.