US federal officials are searching for more potential victims of a Texas man who recently pled guilty to cyberstalking women for almost three years in Colorado, Texas and Arizona.

       Hugo Iram Cardona Jr, 21, used a scheme involving two-factor authentication – an electronic authentication method – to hack into the Snapchat accounts of at least 15 young women, then steal their intimate photos and videos, the US Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Texas reports.

       The Odessa man reached out to his victims on social media platforms like Instagram and “demanded that they ‘apologise’, or he would publicly release the content”, according to the federal government office. He also pressured most of the young women into video chatting with him “while engaging in sexually explicit conduct”.

       Cardona has pled guilty to three counts of cyberstalking and is scheduled for sentencing on June 3. Each count could result in up to 10 years in prison.

       Investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations and El Paso Police Department are trying to uncover any additional potential victims. The offenses likely took place between Aug 15, 2020, and June 1, 2023.

       Cardona used several phone numbers from the TextNow phone service to contact his victims, along with various Instagram accounts. His handles included: “idkprii85”, “designoiram”, “juniorrriram”, “urfavpapi”, “urdvddyjunie” and “juniorrhernandez”. He’s also linked to the following Snapchat accounts: “juniepri”, “asap_juniorrr” and “juniorrriram”.

       Anyone who was in contact with Cardona using those accounts or phone numbers during the three-year period are asked to fill out a victim questionnaire. Officials say that victim identities will remain private and case-related information is kept confidential. – The Denver Post/Tribune News Service

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