[UPDATED] Luis Mijangos, Alleged “Sextortion” Hacker, Pleads Not Guilty


Luis Mijangos pleaded not guilty today to 16 federal charges, including conspiracy, mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, extortion, wiretapping and other counts. U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles F. Eick in downtown Los Angeles set an Aug. 9 status conference in the case.

In the Marvel Comics' world, Charles Francis Xavier is the leader and founder of the X-Men and–although a paraplegic–“Professor X,” as he is known, possesses the world's most powerful mutant mind, giving him the ability to read, control and influence
human minds.
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According to various websites, Santa Ana's Luis Mijangos idolized the fictional Professor X. But, while also confined to a wheelchair, Mijangos apparently used his “special powers” to read, control and influence for evil, not good.

We
told you here
about the 31-year-old getting popped by the feds last month for allegedly
hacking
into dozens of computers, obtaining personal data about people using the
computers, and then demanding sexually explicit videos from girls and
women in exchange for keeping their personal information private.

He is scheduled to be indicted today.

Between his arrest and today, we've learned some things other than the Professor X obsession about Mijangos and his case:

  • Mijangos was confined to a wheelchair after being wounded in a gang shooting.

  • There's a nickname for the type of crime Mijangos–who the feds claim victimized at least 44 girls and 186 women–is alleged to have committed. It's unclear if the Los Angeles Times coined it, but the paper is publicizing it: “sextortion.”

  • The Times' Andrew Blankstein looked at the 23-page criminal complaint filed in U.S.
    District
    Court in Los Angeles by the FBI and reports Mijangos allegedly sent an e-mail to a victim in
    which he attached a nude picture of her. “I will publish the images and let
    your family know about your dark side,” he reportedly threatened, “.  .  . so you better do that video,
    send it to me via e-mail and you will never hear from me ever.”

These startling new revelations can be added to the sick-ass shit that was alleged at the time of the arrest:

  • Mijangos used
    peer-to-peer networks to infect computers around the world with
    malicious computer code.

  • He induced victims to download the
    malware onto their computers by making the files appear to be popular
    songs.

  • After the victims downloaded the malware, he 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.


  • Once he had control of a computer, Mijangos
    searched for sexually explicit or intimate images and videos of women,
    typically young women and girls in various states of undress or engaged
    in sexual acts with their partners.

  • He contacted the female
    victims, informing them that he was in possession of intimate images and
    videos and threatening to distribute those stolen images and videos to
    every addressee in the victims' contact lists unless they made
    additional videos for him.

  • He also told his victims that, because
    he controlled their computers, he would know if they attempted to
    contact the authorities, and he threatened to retaliate against them by
    releasing the images and videos if they called the police.

  • He told one victim that she did not want to “mess”
    with a team of hackers.

  • He installed a “keylogger” on
    victims' computers that allowed him to record every key that was struck
    on the keyboards of the infected computers. Because the users of those
    compromised computers were unaware that their computers had been
    infected, they continued to use their computers to engage in commercial
    and social activities.

  • He used the keylogger to steal credit card
    numbers and personal identifying information that he used to engage in
    identity theft and to purchase merchandise.

  • He used stolen usernames and
    passwords to access victims' e-mail and social networking sites to
    further his extortion scheme.

  • After hacking e-mail accounts belonging to
    victims' boyfriends, Mijangos contacted women and teenage girls and,
    pretending to be their boyfriends, asked them to create pornographic
    videos for him. Once he had those videos, Mijangos again contacted the
    victims, this time using an alias, to demand more pornographic videos
    under threats of distributing the videos previously sent to him.

  • With
    his control of the victims' computers
    and all of their functions, he was able to remotely access
    victims' webcams and to turn them on from time to time in an attempt to
    catch the victims in intimate situations. Occasionally he was
    successful.

  • Mijangos infected more than 100 computers.

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The FBI says that at the time a search warrant was served at
his residence, Mijangos allegedly acknowledged that he hacked into computers, but he 
claimed that he did so at the request of boyfriends and husbands who
sought to determine whether the women were cheating on them.

He is also said to have admitted asking for additional sexual videos but only to
determine whether the women would actually do it.

Mijangos conceded he was involved with an international network of hackers and that he participated in credit card fraud, according to the bureau.

His arrest on suspicion of extortion, a felony that carries a statutory maximum penalty of
two years in federal prison, came after a two-year investigation by the FBI's cyber
squad.

The bureau was tipped by the Glendale Police Department, which received a complaint from a victim and quickly realized a sophisticated computer hacker possibly preyed on a number of victims.

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