A teenager in the US has revealed how he sold the family jewels to pay off a blackmailer and stop an embarrassing video of him going public.
Hector Hernandez, 17, claims he is the victim of a computer virus, known as a R.A.T (remote access tool) which allows anonymous hackers to gain control of a person’s computer and secretly film them.
Hernandez said the hackers obtained an “embarrassing” video of him that they threatened to share on Facebook and his school’s website if he didn’t pay a ransom.
“I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. I was trying to have them not send it,” Hernández told Fox 2, adding that his fear drove him to steal.
“I didn’t want to tell my parents so I took their jewellery,” said Hernandez, who stole around $100,000 worth of family heirlooms, which he ended up selling for just $1,550.
Despite bowing to the blackmailer’s orders, Hernandez said the threats have continued: “They said they wanted $310 at first, and then $1,140, and then another $310.”
His mother, Lilia Hernandez, said she was “so angry and disappointed with him,” but now just hopes to put an end to the situation.
The teenager has now spilled the beans and admitted to his parents what the “embarrassing” video was and will not send any more money out to the blackmailers.
The family is also working with authorities in an effort to get their valuables back.
It’s not the first time the R.A.T virus has made it into the news.
Earlier this year 19 year-old computer science student Jared James Abrahams was arrested after it was discovered that he’d hijacked the webcams of up to 40 women, including Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf, and blackmailed them into performing sexual acts on camera.
