A "sexting" scam targeting young men is gaining momentum. Men are mostly targeted on dating apps like MeetMe, Meet4U and Plenty of Fish, but men on Craigslist have also been targets.
A young man makes contact with a woman in her late teens, early 20's. Soon the girl asks to move to texting and starts sending pictures.
"Sometimes they can be racy to begin with but typically they're just a picture of a woman, a picture of her lying on her bed, maybe in a bathing suit," said Doug Fodeman with thedailyscam.com.
Fodeman says the woman then wants pictures in return and soon the men start receiving "sexts" of the woman topless, naked, or pictures of her body parts. A bit later, the woman's Dad texts or calls back.
"You've been sexting with my daughter. You encouraged my daughter to sext. And, you need to deal with this because it's looking bad for you, dude. This girl is...and then they announce that she's 15, 17, 14, she's underage," Fodeman said explaining the text.
In reality, there has really been a fraudster on the other end the whole time and they heavily warn the man that his life is over unless he pays a hefty price.
"They are worried. I have one guy, he's thinking about suicide which is crazy. And, a lot of young men are so distraught over this. College kids planning a path and a career. Some guys are in the Army and they're scared to death that they are going to be thrown out of the Army. I have talked to guys who just pay," explained Fodeman.
Details about this elaborate extortion scam are at thedailyscam.com where you will also find real accounts and updates about the scam.