Woman ends up in hospital after nude images leaked across social media

Terrell Ashby, otherwise known as “Jason Brandon,” of Williamsburg, Virginia, embarked on a ten-month sextortion campaign, landing one woman in the hospital.

It all started with one victim. Then, as the scammer got comfortable, one became over 100. These young women were promised a significant amount of money in exchange for nude photos but could count themselves lucky if they made it out with their lives.

That’s what happened with one of Terrell Ashby’s victims. The 26-year-old man victimized, tormented, and harassed her to the point where she overdosed on prescription medication. The victim recovered, but even her brush with death couldn’t rid her of Ashby.

While the unnamed woman was in hospital, Ashby continued to threaten, stalk, and harass her. He even advertised her explicit images to users of different social media platforms. This went on for months – the torture didn’t stop.

But, to understand what has been described as relentless criminal cruelty, we have to start from the beginning.

This all started from at least February to December 2020, when Ashby victimized over 100 young women, targeting them based on their social media profiles.

The perpetrator lured these women in with a promise of $70,000 if they participated in nude video chats or agreed to send him explicit images of themselves.

However, this was all a ruse, as Ashby was taking secret screenshots of the nude video chats to extort his victims. He threatened to show the images to their family and friends and post them on social media if he wasn’t paid.

This is a common tactic in sextortion cases, as the perpetrator will lure vulnerable individuals in with promises of cash but will then use compromising images or videos of their victims to extract as much money from them as possible.

Many victims paid Ashby around $25 to $50 not to have their images leaked. Yet, he continued to harass them, sometimes for months on end.

The 26-year-old created various “shaming profiles” on different social media platforms, where he used the victims' identities and explicit photos to humiliate and torture them. Ashby haunted these women as he repeatedly threatened to reveal their “expose page” to their friends and family.

Terrell Ashby has been sentenced to 36 months imprisonment and three years of supervised release. In addition to this punishment, he will also be expected to pay over $28,000 in restitution to the women he targeted, stalked, and tortured for months on end.

Sextortion is a lethal scam

In the cybercrime world, sextortion is all too common. In some cases, the victims may prevail, but in others, sextortion schemes prove deadly.

One case involved 17-year-old Jordan DeMay of Marquette, Michigan, who was tricked into taking explicit photos of himself by two brothers, Samuel and Samson Ogoshi.

Much like the previous case, the Ogoshi brothers had over 100 victims. However, the difference here is that the Ogoshi brothers posed as young women about DeMay’s age.

They requested sexual images of DeMay, which they received, and then demanded the teen give them hundreds of dollars in exchange for the photos not being leaked.

Not knowing what else to do, DeMay sent the brothers $300. The teenager then threatened to kill himself when one of the co-conspirators told DeMay to do it. DeMay ended his life only six hours after their initial communication started, the BBC reported.