From Ars Technica:
Laptop theft leads to "sextortion"—and arrest of family friendSecret Service says man demanded nude video of his wife's "hot" friend.
Sextortion—it's not just limited to creepy guys you've never met in real life; now even people you know are getting in on the act.
Back on April 7 of this year, a woman in Dover, New Hampshire called the police. Someone had broken into her house and stolen her MacBook Pro—normal enough in the grand scheme of criminal behavior—but also some of her underwear. Disconcerting. Making it even worse was the victim's knowledge that her now-stolen laptop contained not just e-mails and Web browsing history, but several years' worth of private, sexual pictures of her and several partners. But perhaps the underwear-and-laptop thief wouldn't find them.
Months passed. The computer was not recovered, but the situation hadn't gotten any worse—until the e-mails arrived. They began on July 10, coming from a Gmail address. "What if I told you I have 'pics' of you?" one asked. "Like a lot. Would you send me more?" A second e-mail added that the victim was "crazy hot"—unlikely to be much of a compliment coming from a random Internet creepo asking for more nude pictures.
They began corresponding, the woman trying to figure out how the guy had gotten her photos, which were stored only on her computer. (He sent her several of the unpublished photos as proof of his claim.) The guy on the other end of the Gmail account never admitted to burgling her home; he claimed that some random person with a craigslist account had just happened to send him the pictures.
"Send me more," he demanded.
Read the rest of the story, including how they caught the perpetrator, here.