An Australian man has learned a valuable lesson about scammers after what he believed to be a flirty conversation on Tinder turned into blackmail.
The man, known only by the fake name Mark, told News.com.au he thought he was speaking to a real woman, who the app told him was less than a kilometre away from him.
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The pair chatted for a week before she suggested they move to messaging platform Whatsapp.
Mark became suspicious when she sent him an Indonesian number, but she told him she was travelling in Australia.
Things heated up quickly and the woman sent a nude photo to Mark and requested he send her one of him in return.
He complied and that's when things took a dark turn. Suddenly the woman dropped the flirting and demanded money from Mark. If he didn't pay up, the photos would be sent to his family members and co-workers.
The scammer even sent Mark screenshots of his Instagram, Facebook page and the names of his friends and family.
Petrified of people seeing the photos, Mark sent the scammer the AU$5000 (NZ$5350) requested, but it wasn't enough and the scammer began demanding more money.
"The money arrives and of course they tell me it's not enough," Mark told news.com.au. "They then start repeating all the same threats as before."
He went to see a company that specialised on online content removal, which advised him to take as many personal details as possible offline so the scammer couldn't find out more about him.
The worst part was that he had to tell his boss about what had happened in case the scammer managed to get through to his workplace.
"I could tell he felt sorry for me and told me he would be as supportive as he could if it did come out," he told news.com.au.
"But as much as he can try and be supportive it would definitely have an impact on my career. It's the type of thing you can't live down."
Newshub.
