14 DAY TRIAL // UK police arrested a sixteen-year-old from Croxteh, a suburb of Liverpool, on charges of hacking, blackmail, and fraud, the Liverpool Echo reports.
Police arrested the unnamed teenager on July 1, around 7:30 AM, after officers from the Titan and the Merseyside Police departments executed a Computer Misuse Act warrant at the suspect's home.
Police officers said they're investigating allegations that the teen hacked into the Instagram account of a person living in another country.
The victim's Instagram account had thousands of followers, and the teen tried to blackmail the original author, asking for money in return for control over the hacked account.
Further, Titan Police also says the teen is under investigation for hacking into an online shopping account, which he used to make fraudulent purchases that were redirected to another address.
To help their investigation, police officers seized computer equipment from the teen's home. The suspect remained in police custody.
In March 2016, Dutch police arrested two suspects on similar charges, of hacking multiple Instagram accounts.
The two were accused of hijacking Instagram accounts with large followings and then posting advertisements for which they received money from various third-parties. That investigation is still ongoing.
Softpedia recommends that our users secure their social media accounts using 2FA (two-factor authentication) in order to avoid such incidents.