It seems a number of men in the US state of Maine have recently been getting themselves in a bit of bother in front of their webcams, and now a Maine police department has had to step in.
Bangor, Maine, is a picturesque city along the Penobscot River. The area has a population of over 150,000, and at least some of those residents have found themselves in some rather embarrassing trouble in the not so distant past.
Now, we know that most of our seasoned male followers will know that if you get an unexpected friend request on Facebook from a beautiful looking female, alarm bells should be ringing. Loudly. In fact, if you don’t recognise the person making the friend request, you should simply dismiss it.
However this advice seems to have been lost on many of Bangor’s male population, who duly accepted the friend request, resulting in them being entangled in an extortion attempt that would leave most of us very red in the face.
It works by the “beautiful female” chatting up our male victims. The online conversations across Facebook would get very heated, and the “beautiful female” would invite the male victim to film themselves in a rather… well, compromising position in front of their webcams.
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Once in possession of said video footage, the extortion begins. The “beautiful female” soon turns into “uncompromising extortionist” as fast as you can click the “stop video” button, and demands of payment begin. Failure to make such a payment will result in said compromising video footage being posted on the male victims newsfeed for all their friends and family to see.
Now, before you think about hitting the Block button, the criminal already has a copy of your Facebook friends (either from your friends list or just seeing who has been posting on your newsfeed) and the video will be sent straight to them if you go down that avenue.
It’s outright extortion. Yes it’s illegal, but there is little chance of tracking down the perpetrator, who may not be from the same country, and may also not be female.
Quite the quandary.
Well, it seems that many of the male victims have been reporting their problems to the local Bangor Police Department. And that police department have clearly become rather tired of dealing with such complaints, leading to the following hilarious statement from their Facebook page.
The post in full reads…
The officers of the Bangor Police Department really should not be the folks to tell you to avoid doing very private things in front of a webcam.
We have been dealing with numerous complainants (men) who received a “friend request” from what appears to be a very attractive female.
If it seems to be too good to be true, it probably is. In these cases, it definitely is.
Once the individuals are friended, the new and lovely lady requests that you do things in front of the camera for “her.”
TC’s advice, or takeaway; “Don’t do this!” You have been warned.
As soon as you take part in this grand adventure, the “lovely lady” sends you a message that you will now need to send her between $300 and $600.00 American dollars. There are various ways that these “ladies” gather up the cash.
Being the genius that you are, you tell her, “no” and that you are not going to pay “her.” Shortly thereafter the revenge takes place when the “lovely lady” turned “scorned vixen” uploads your new found fame to many, many of your Facebook friends. You know, the real ones.
The time to say no to these requests is when an unknown and attractive woman tries to friend you on “the Facebook.”
Follow these simple tips. 1. Go to the closest mirror. 2. Look at yourself. 3. Give yourself an honest review and realize that there is no reason in the world that an attractive lady from the Philippines wants to be your friend. 4. Return to the computer and delete the friend request. 5. Continue looking at lawnmowers, motorcycles and jacked up trucks that are for sale in your region of the country. 6. Realize that you just saved yourself from showing the world what no one really needs to see, and a whole lot of cash.
Keep your hands to yourself, leave other people’s things alone, and be kind to one another. We will be here. We do not have a repair kit for stupid mistakes.
Hopefully people will heed the advice, and not just those from Bangor. To reiterate a piece of good advice from Bangor police – the time to say no is when a beautiful female stranger tries to add you on social media.