Charlottetown police investigating sextortion reports

Charlottetown police are investigatingseveral instances of sextortion recently in the city.

Police saidpeople set up fake dating profiles through online dating sites and other social media sites, and invite victims into consensual online conversations.

Police saidthe chat then becomes sexual and the victim is encouraged to move to video chat. During the video session the victim is lured into engaging in sexual acts.

Police saidvictims are secretly videotaped and extortionists then demand a sum of money, or threaten to expose the explicit video.

Deputy police chief Gary McGuigan saidthere have been three reports from city residents in the last few months.

He saidthese people did not send in money, but he expects there are likely others who have.

"Given the nature of the crime and the potentialembarrassmentthat surrounds it, a lot of these things will go unreported, "said McGuigan.

"We don't have the statistics to say how many people have sent money. But we would encourage people not to send money. People areembarrassedby what they've done. So they won't report it because of that."

McGuigan saidvictims are being asked to send $500.

He said thatanyone who has fallen for this is encouraged to contact police immediately and not to send any money to the suspect.