Paris Hilton was left feeling "upset, hurt, and violated" when her emails and bank cards were targeted by a hacker.
The 37-year-old businesswoman and DJ appeared in the federal courthouse in Los Angeles on Monday to testify against Paystar Bkhchadzhyan, who was sentenced to 57 months in prison for bank fraud conspiracy after she hacked Paris’ iCloud and gained her bank details.
In a lengthy statement which was written and read out by Paris, and obtained by The Blast, the hotel heiress explained how she was left fearing her life after the terrifying ordeal.
She said: "It is very important for me to stand here today and pursue legal action on behalf of myself, my family and anyone who has been targeted with hacking. This was stealing and an invasion of my privacy. Public figure or not, no one should be a target for this crime. I hope that by being here today it brings awareness that this won’t be tolerated and moving forward it doesn’t continue to happen to me or anyone else.
"When I first found out that my personal emails, iCloud, credit cards and identity had been stolen and taken over by some stranger I felt so upset, hurt and violated. The defendant not only hacked into my accounts and made credit cards with my name on them but somehow found a way to hack into the email accounts of my employees, my friends and my family members such as my father and sister."
Paris – who is currently engaged to Chris Zylka – went on to state that the woman had attempted to enter her gated home by calling security guards and pretending to be the star, as well as contacting various members of her team and family in search of large sums of money.
She added: "Now it has made me very scared, terrified and traumatised. This has impacted me in so many ways. I am constantly looking over my shoulder and even scared to walk into my home alone fearful that this woman or her boyfriend or other dangerous friends are inside there waiting to hurt me or steal from me.
"This woman targeted me in such a way that I will never forget or get over it. I feel so incredibly violated. She was trying to get all my user names and passwords for every single one of my email and bank accounts. She took over my life and identity. She tried to shake me up for money. It was all so unbelievable and crazy that it truly seemed like something out of a movie."
Paris closed her statement by slamming anyone else who might be thinking of attempting to impersonate someone for money.
She said: "I have been violated so many times in my life and I am sick and tired of just brushing it under the rug and not standing up for myself. I want the defendant and any other hackers out their who are planning to target me or anyone else that this is wrong, highly illegal and a serious crime and it will not be tolerated and if they attempt again then they will be punished for their despicable actions. No one should ever have to go through this or made to feel this way and I hope by being here today it will help make a difference and make people think twice before they attempt or try to do such deplorable things to another person and hopefully put a stop to this."
Paris Hilton testifies against hacker
