Man Accused Of Extorting Underage Girls For Thousands Of Nude Photos

The FBI arrested a Texas man for allegedly stealing thousands of nude photographs from college students and underage girls and then extorting them for more photos.

According to court documents obtained by KHOU, investigators said that Andrew Venegas, 23, gained access to victims' social media accounts and stole their private photos. He then messaged them using Telegram and threatened to post the images online unless they sent him additional explicit photographs.

The FBI said that Venegas set up two websites, which he used to sell the images he purportedly stole and extorted from his victims. Undercover agents made three separate purchases on Venegas' website. In one instance, they did not receive any content. A second attempt to download the photos was canceled by Venegas before the download was complete, though agents did receive some images.

The FBI was able to identify Venegas by tracing the cryptocurrency payments to a second account set up under his name. Once agents had Venegas in custody, they sent a message to his Telegram account, which showed up on his phone.

Venegas is facing charges of sexual exploitation of children.