CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — A Chambersburg man will serve 22 months in prison followed by three years of probation for hacking into numerous social media accounts and circulating the victims' private photographs, U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero announced this week.
Reginald "Reggie" Adams, 25, pleaded guilty in January to one count of wire fraud, Romero said in a press release.
From May 2020 to August 2021, Adams hacked into the Snapchat accounts of at least 20 female victims. Targeting mostly women he knew from high school, he tricked the victims into providing their account security codes by sending them text messages from anonymized numbers claiming to be Snapchat official staff.
Once he obtained the security codes, Adams logged into the victims’ accounts and reset the passwords. He located any private sexually explicit photographs in the “My Eyes Only” section of the accounts and shared them with the victims’ contacts – their friends, family, coworkers, and acquaintances, Romero said.
Sometimes, Adams posted the victims’ private photos on public websites, along with the victims’ contact information, which led to victims receiving unsolicited messages from unknown individuals who had seen their private photos. He also extorted victims, tricking them into sending him photos by falsely promising to pay them, then using their photos to control the victims and extract more photos.
“It’s truly hard to understand why someone would be this cruel,” Romero said. “What’s crystal clear, though, is that Reginald Adams respects the law as little as he respects women. Again and again, he deliberately targeted, tricked, and took the most personal of photos from his victims, posting them online, violating their privacy, and causing significant emotional distress. We and our partners at the FBI take crimes like this incredibly seriously, and we’re committed to seeking justice for victims and accountability for cyber predators like Adams.”
The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Sarah M. Wolfe.
