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WNY teens fall victim to twisted cyber scheme

Posted at 8:43 PM, Sep 15, 2015
and last updated 2015-09-15 20:43:45-04

A man from New Baltimore, Michigan will spend the next 22 years in prison for cyber stalking, and sextortion.

It was through popular websites like Twitter and Facebook that 38-year-old James Allen, a DJ and bouncer, contacted young teens from Western New York.

Allen told the teens he found naked photos of them on the Internet, and directed them to view the photos with a link to a copycat website of Tiny Pics. Once the teens put in their information, Allen had access to all of their e-mail addresses and passwords and used that information to cyber stalk more teens.

"Victims went to his webpage and they knew what Tiny Pics was," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Mango. "They put in their e-mail address and passwords."

Once Allen had access to some of these teen's Facebook accounts, he impersonated their friends in order to get more teens to sign up on the false Tiny Pics page.

He didn't stop by just stealing their information, either. Allen engaged in chat messages with the teens, threatening if they didn't get on Skype with him, take their clothes off and engage in sexual acts, he would send photos of them to "all of Western New York."

Some teens didn't fall for the trick. One local mother shared her story with 7 Eyewitness News.

"It was scary," said Gina from Williamsville.

Gina's daughter was contacted by Allen who was impersonating her friend on Facebook. He asked her to enter her information in the fake Tiny Pic website. Gina's daughter, sensing something wasn't right, quickly told her mother and her story helped nab this predator.

"I'm glad that he was caught, but I feel sad for some of the girls who were victimized by him," she said. "At our house, I have the rule where if you have any type of online account we have their passwords. If the kids need help no matter what it is we want them to come to us."

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