Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
In the eyes of authorities, Luis Mijangos was a skilled computer hacker who went on the rampage and tried to extort sexually explicit videos from women and girls.
The FBI arrested the 31-year-old Santa Ana, Calif. man on Tuesday without incident.
Authorities said that FBI computer forensics experts determined that Mijangos infected more than 100 computers that were used by approximately 230 individuals, of which at least 44 were juveniles.
The affidavit in the case alleged that Mijangos infected computers around the world with a malicious computer code, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Mijangos then got his victims to download “the malware onto their computers by making the files appear to be popular songs,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office stated Tuesday. “After the victims downloaded the malware, Mijangos was able to control their computers, allowing him to send instant messages containing malware from those computers to other people in the victims’ address books. These later victims thought they were receiving messages from friends or family members.”
Authorities said once he got into the computers, he searched for sexually explicit or intimate images and videos of women and girls in ” various states of undress or engaged in sexual acts with their partners.”
Mijangos contacted the female victims and threatened to distribute intimate images and videos to people in their contact list unless they made additional explicit videos for him.
He also told victims he could tell via their computers if they tried calling police, and threatened to release the videos and images if they called authorities, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
On top of all of that, he also allegedly installed a “keylogger” on victims’ computers to record every key strokes on the infected computers and was then able to steal credit card numbers and personal identifying info to purchase merchandise, authorities alleged.
He also hacked into victims’ boyfriends email account, posed as the boyfriends and asked them to create to create pornographic videos for him, authorities said. After that, he contacted the victims — using an alias — and threatened to distribute the explicit videos if they didn’t send him more.
As if that wasn’t enough, on occasion he was able to access webcams to catch victims in intimate situations.
Authorities said Mijangos told FBI agents that he hacked into the computers, but did so on behalf of husbands and boyfriends to see if the women were cheating on them.
