CHARLOTTE, N.C. (FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) – Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police are investigating a case of extortion and blackmail after someone hacked into a 12-year-old boy’s PlayStation account; stealing his password and locking him out.
The young man’s mother asked FOX 46 not to use his full name, but rather use his nickname ‘Jman.’
Jman said that he was playing his PS4 a few days ago when he suddenly got kicked out of his online account.
He went on to say that the alleged hacker then started making demands through Instagram that have gone on for days. Jman said, “He changed the password and the email so that I wouldn’t receive anything about him changing it.”
Just like that, the almost 13-year-old lost access to everything on his PS4 online profile.
“I spent money on certain things on the games like data stuff. I’ve gotten really far into the game,” he explained.
Right away, the alleged hacker started messaging Jman on Instagram through a profile with no photo and no posts, just the name ‘Kevin’ in the bio section.
Jman said, “He said ‘I want a $50 PS4 gift card or I’m going to use a lot of money on your account and I’m going to sell it to somebody.”
Jman isn’t sure if the hacker will really do that, but the threats have been escalating.
“If you don’t give it to me by this time, I’m going to take it up to $100,’ and a lot of people want your account, it’s very rare and stuff,” Jman said. “He’s just trying to get a lot of money out of me from my own account.”
The CMPD police report from Tuesday, June 15 lists the crimes under extortion/blackmail as well as hacking/computer invasion.
The good news: Jman’s mom said they were able to pause the Green Dot credit card attached to the PS4 account, so no one can access that money.
Her advice to other parents is to consider skipping the online gaming accounts and just stick to buying games in the store. Jman has made it clear that he’s not paying up.
“If I give them the [gift] card, they’re not going to give me back my account, they are still going to sell it,” he said.
Jman is just hoping to have the account shut down temporarily, effectively sending the hackers back into cyberspace for good.
The family has been in contact with Sony for help getting Jman’s account shut down temporarily, but so far no luck.
