The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) is warning residents of an active scam targeting people contacting escort services and dating sites.
In the last month, the number of reports to police involving extortion threats has doubled.
The OPS said victims are being asked to send self-gratification videos to a person they met while chatting online. Once the video has been received, the suspect begins to threaten the victim, saying they will expose the video to family and friends unless an amount of money or bitcoin is paid.
How to protect yourself:
- Set your privacy settings to the highest settings
- Don’t provide images or videos of yourself
- Don’t move conversations to a platform where contacts can be accessed
If you receive a threat, the OPS said to stop all communication and report the incident to police.