Philly man stole and posted nudes of at least 8 women on platforms like 4Chan, Discord, and Telegram, lawsuit says

A Gloucester County photographer fears she will “never be able to scrub the internet of her naked body,” according to a lawsuit filed in federal court, after a Philadelphia man allegedly posted stolen intimate photos of her online on more than 100 occasions without her consent.

J.G., who filed the suit Friday in U.S. District Court in New Jersey under her initials out of privacy concerns, claims she is one of at least eight women Tyler John Jones has victimized since 2013 by stealing their intimate nude photos from their phones and posting them on platforms such as Discord, Telegram and 4Chan — an online message board known for racist and explicit content.

Jones, who pleaded guilty in 2013 to invasion of privacy and dissemination of child pornography after uploading videos he taped of two women and a 17-year-old girl undressing, is also accused in the lawsuit of posting screenshots of those videos after becoming a sex offender.

No criminal charges appear to have been filed against Jones related to the lawsuit’s claims. Messages to Glassboro police regarding an investigation were not returned Tuesday.

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“I still can remember the physical reaction my body had when I first learned this was happening,” J.G. told The Inquirer. “I feel like I lost a whole part of my identity where I’m scared to tell people my name and what I do. I had this genuine fear I was going to be shamed or hurt.”

Since learning of the stolen images, J.G. has changed her appearance. Her hope in filing the lawsuit is to warn people about what happened and let other victims know they are not alone.

No lawyer was listed for Jones and messages to him and his last known place of work were not returned.

Jones posted the images more than two years before J.G. found out about them in December 2023, according to court filings, including a five-month blitz of “near-nightly” posts on 4Chan. The images were accompanied by J.G’s name, place of work, and even hobbies, which made it possible for third parties to harass her — as multiple people proceeded to do. What’s more, attorneys say, Jones contacted the victim’s friends, offering to share her nude photographs with them.

J.G. learned of the images when a friend alerted her to an Instagram account that had offered to share the images with J.G.’s friend and would go on to send eight photographs of J.G.

The same account was sending a slew of messages to another friend.

“Do you know [J.G.]?” read the message, according to the suit. “Would you be interested in pictures of her?”

When the friend didn’t respond, the account messaged multiple more times, going so far as to offer a “preview.”

J.G., according to the suit, had not sent some of the images to anyone, so she worried that someone had accessed her phone or online storage.

She would search the internet for the images and found dozens of hits. That’s when J.G. hired an attorney.

Various clues, including a photo of Jones’ hand holding J.G.’s phone in her apartment with a nude of her on the screen, led her to figure out who in her inner circle was responsible.

J.G. met Jones in April 2022, through a friend who was dating Jones at the time.

During that friendship, Jones was able to borrow J.G.’s phone by claiming his had died. He then found her personal nude photographs, said the suit, and sent them to himself without her knowledge or permission.

Working with 4Chan and Meta, J.G. and her attorneys were able to obtain IP addresses that led them to Jones, according to the suit. Those IP addresses were then linked to posts of nude photographs of at least seven other women close to Jones, the lawsuit said.

According to the suit, subpoenaed information from tech companies shows the Instagram account spreading J.G.’s nudes is linked to an “Ask a 24-year-old sex offender anything” post from 2016.

In the post, Jones allegedly touts his felony and misdemeanor charges, explaining how his case “made national and international news.” Jones then posted screenshots of the videos that got him in legal trouble and discussed how little the sex offender designation had impacted his life.

“Worked retail for the last year, and am going to be working at a property management company starting soon,” the suit claims Jones wrote. “Honestly being attractive now has made a huge difference I think. People don’t ask questions, and I’m really good at talking to people now.”

Scrubbing the images from the internet has been arduous for J.G.. New Jersey State Police confiscated Jones’ devices in March, the lawsuit said, but people who had previously saved her photos continue to upload them.

There have been at least 10 instances in which people have reached out to J.G. online and by phone, trying to “strike up a lewd conversation with her.”

In March, a man texted J.G., asking her to call him because it was “moderately urgent,” according to the lawsuit. According to the lawsuit, the number indicated the caller was a man who pleaded guilty in 2015 to child welfare endangerment and reckless endangerment for locking his ex-girlfriend’s children in their bedrooms without food or water for days at a time.

The ordeal has left J.G. in a state of vigilance, afraid to go out and be photographed, out of fear someone will recognize her from her images online, her lawyers wrote. The suit claims Jones’ actions destroyed her sense of safety and privacy. She has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

According to the suit, Jones claimed in posts to have at least 40 images of J.G.

J.G.’s attorneys, Cali Madia and Daniel Szalkiewicz, said the goal of the federal lawsuit is to show the jury the trauma their client has experienced, and to deter others from taking similar actions.

“It’s important for our client to take back what was taken away from her,” said Szalkiewicz.

J.G. seeks damages of at least $150,000 for every photo shared, for pain and suffering, as well as punitive damages, attorney’s fees, and injunctive relief that would prevent Jones from continuing to distribute the images.