14 DAY TRIAL // Skype is definitely a great platform for chatting with friends and families, but it’s also quite a helpful tool for those ready to spice things up a little bit.
A Cottonwood Heights man ended up blackmailed by a woman he had met on an adult website after he agreed to get naked in front of the camera on Skype.
KSL.com reports that the man was surfing an adult website when he found a woman who requested him to video chat on Skype. Once the video session came to an end, the man, who refused to disclose his identity because of obvious reasons, received an IM message saying the entire video was recorded.
“He received an instant message on his computer and he was told that the video was recorded,” Sgt. Dan Bartlett, Cottonwood Heights police, told the source.
“They knew his family, knew his friends and were going to send that video to them unless he signed up for a bunch of adult websites at cost on his credit card,” Bartlett continued, explaining that the woman actually said she had private information and Facebook details.
The man agreed to sign up for the adult websites, but eventually decided to call the police once his credit card was charged more than $150 (€115).
Police officers said they continue the investigation, but such a case is very unlikely to be solved. They added, however, that the adult site may actually be behind the whole scam, as they had the man’s contact and private information, usually provided through a registered account.
“It's new, it's unique. I haven't seen it before. There are a couple lessons to be learned here. One is be careful what you're doing on the internet, and two is watch out for being scammed,” Bartlett explained.
While there’s no doubt this is something to be embarrassed of, paying $6 (€4) for such a thing would have been the poor man’s smartest choice. Ever.