A woman alleging she was secretly recorded while showering at a Hampton Inn and Suites then blackmailed.
One of the biggest hotel chains in the world is facing a $100 million lawsuit after a woman claims one of its unidentified employees filmed her in the shower in order to blackmail and extort her.
The woman says she fears for her safety after she says she was recorded without her consent while taking a shower in Hilton’s Hampton Inn and Suites in Downtown Albany back in 2015.
In a newly filed lawsuit, the Jane Doe alleges she did not realize she was recorded until this September when she says she received an email with a link to her shower video on an x-rated website her full name in the video’s title and a message reading “this is you right?”
“All I could think is my life is over if this gets out my life is absolutely over.”
According to the complaint, the next day the extorter threatened to post videos of her on other sites unless she sent a new private video in exchange “you have until midnight to send me something good. Or I will post videos, your name, info everywhere. Then I send to people you know. You can enjoy being famous.”
She alleges when she did not respond, over the next couple of weeks the extorter posted the video on more sites and then created an email address using her name, and emailed the video to her friends, family, and colleagues.
Along with this message that read in part “dear friends I am trying to recruit some friends to help out a friend’s art project (for which I got to be the model!) It’s a little daring. Let me know what you think”
“It was just absolutely traumatizing because these are people I went to law school with. They’re friends, they’re coworkers. And they were sent a link to what looks like an email I sent.”
She alleges the person then sent another email demanding she sends thousands of dollars to a bitcoin address in exchange for pulling the video – “you’re buying peace. Easy right?”
“You don’t go into a hotel room and think something like this can happen to you. And it happened to me. If we can spare one more person from this happening to, that would make it worth it.”
Now she thinks that she might not be the only victim.
“We investigated extensively kind of as far as we can go without Hilton’s help at this point and that investigation has revealed at least there is another victim,” Roland Christiansen, the woman’s attorney, said.
A spokesperson for the hotel responding overnight says the safety and security of our guests is our highest priority. We will continue to work with the authorities to discover the perpetrator and see that she/he is held accountable.
The hotel says it recently underwent a complete renovation and that during that process, no recording devices of any kind were uncovered.
A spokesperson for the hotel released this statement:
“We were shocked and stunned to learn of the allegations raised in the complaint we received earlier this evening. The safety and security of our guests is our highest priority, and we emphatically do not condone any form of this type of invasion of privacy. Thus far, no evidence of any kind has been found during our initial review of the situation. Recently, the hotel underwent a complete renovation. During that process, no recording devices of any kind were uncovered. We will continue to work with the authorities to discover the perpetrator and see that s/he is held accountable.”
The FBI released this statement:
“Per DOJ (Department of Justice) policy, I cannot confirm or deny the FBI’s involvement in any investigation.”
