London teen jailed for hacking Snapchat accounts in bid to make cash

A London teenager's been jailed for two years for hacking into snapchat accounts, pretending to be female victims to make money.

Once he had access, 18 year old Jasin Bushi from Camden messaged the women's friends asking for money. When they suspected something was wrong and challenged him, he then threatened to share intimate photos of the victims.

Bushi was sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court on Monday, 25 July, after earlier pleading guilty 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, these charges were left to lie on file.

The court heard that between December 2020 and February 2021, Bushi hacked into seven women’s Snapchat accounts. He then changed the victim’s login credentials preventing them from regaining access.

Whilst in control of the Snapchat accounts, Bushi posed as the person and messaged their friends. The messages started off asking the victim’s friends to borrow some money to help pay their rent, usually £200 or £300, stating they will be kicked out if they are unable to pay.

Realising something was amiss, some of the victim’s friends challenged the legitimacy of the messages. Bushi was not fazed and promptly admitted to not being the victim, but stated if money is not sent to the requested PayPal account he will send nude pictures of the victim to all their contacts.

Intimate pictures or videos of the victims found in the private area of their Snapchat accounts were posted on a number of occasions. These posts were seen by the victim’s friends, family and colleagues. Bushi denied being the person who posted them which was accepted by the Judge.

Detective Constable Ed Sehmer, the 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, 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.

DC Sehmer 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.”

If your email or social media account has been hacked, it’s important to act fast.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) explain how to recover a hacked account here: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/recovering-a-hacked-account.

For wider advice on how to stay safe online visit www.met.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/fa/fraud/online-fraud/cyber-crime-fraud.

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