From Romance to Blackmail

[JofSpades]

Today I will be discussing a type of scam that doesn't initially set off any red flags but the more you talk the more suspicious it becomes. This scam has been plaguing dating apps for some time; the main premises of this scam is for the scammer to get the victim to send explicit or revealing photos to the scammer. Who is posing as a beautiful woman on a dating site, then using those photos to blackmail a victim usually stating that the scammer will send the photos to loved ones and or your job unless a ransom is paid. I recently found myself as a potential victim of one of these scams. I was using a dating app and I seemed to match with this girl who was not far from me and recently moved from Oklahoma. I began a conversation that would last two weeks before she sent me her phone number. Me being me, I did a reverse phone number search and found that this number was registered to an elderly man in Texas. This was the first red flag I encountered, upon texting her directly the conversation stayed on course and we discussed our interests and such. It wasn't until the end of the third week where I started to suspect a possible blackmail scam. All this time I was never asked for money or gift cards which gave me hope. That hope faded when the person I thought was this woman talking to me told me they were lying in bed and "wanted me to come over". But there was no coming over due to the woman not existing and this was the setup of a blackmail scam. As soon as they sent this text, I called the number because I was driving at the time. The line rang and rang and the call would disconnect after a while or have a message that "this wireless user is unavailable". After calling I got a text stating that they would send revealing photos if I send them first. That is not me so I refused, I was pressed then again by this person to send these photos. I then proceeded to try to call again which they responded "my phone ring broke". This was the final flag and I decided to do a final test to see what would happen. I texted the scammer and asked where they were based out of and that I knew it was a blackmail scam. They proceeded to text me that they would create a photo using AI and send it to my Facebook friends unless I paid $400. I then proceeded to laugh at them over text and report the attempt to the FBI internet crimes unit. I hope anyone who is in the dating scene reads this as a caution.