A Tinder user has opened up about how he was blackmailed to stop his naked photos being leaked across the internet.
The man from Sydney, whose real name has not been revealed, matched with ‘a woman’ who lived just a kilometre away from him.
Mark, 38, thought nothing was unusual and the flirty texts through the online dating app continued for around a week.
A Tinder user has opened up about how he was blackmailed to stop his naked photos being leaked across the internet
At that point, the woman suggested exchanging numbers and talking over WhatsApp, Mark told news.com.au.
But after a few more days, the messaging turned more X-rated when the woman sent him a naked photo and asked for one back.
Although it was not something he says he would ordinarily do, he returned one of himself.
His initial suspicions about the Indonesian number she contacted him on were allayed, he said, when she told him she was travelling in Australia.
The man from Sydney, whose real name has not been revealed, matched with ‘a woman’ who lived just a kilometre away
But after a few more days, the messaging turned more X-rated when the woman sent him a naked photo and asked for one back
But she demanded he pay her $500 in exchange for not sending out the picture to friends and family and threatened to bring down his career.
Mark said he thought about not giving them any money.
He also wanted to believe if he did pay it would only be a one-off and that the photos would be deleted straight after the money was received.
‘The money arrives and of course they tell me it’s not enough. They then start repeating all the same threats as before,’ Mark said.
‘You look back on it and think, ‘How stupid could I possibly be?’ but at the time you just don’t realise.’
He was forced to tell his boss who has vowed to help as much as possible if the picture is shared online – which he says has not landed in anyone else’s hands.
But she demanded he pay her $500 in exchange for not sending out the picture to friends and family and threatened to bring down his career
He has called on the support of online content removal specialists which helps people remove personal information on the internet
Mark said he felt his boss was sympathetic but says he will never be able to live it down.
He has called on the support of online content removal specialists which helps people remove personal information or unwanted data about them on the internet.
Brendan McAlpine, from Internet Removals, has been working with Mark to strip back his internet profile entirely.
Brendan McAlpine, from online content removal specialists Internet Removals, said the best thing to do in the situation was to stop talking to them and not pay up
He advised people if they found themselves in a situation like it to stop talking to them and never pay.
‘Most of the time these people are just looking to make some easy cash so if all communication goes dead then they will usually move on to the next victim,’ he told news.com.au.
Mark did the right thing in screenshotting as much of the information as possible before reporting it to the police.