Scam group charges up to $5,000 to Costa Ricans not to divulge sexual videos on Facebook.

How it works: A network that is operating from the Ivory Coast sends a friend request to a male from a very attractive female with a fake profile. The “Tico” receiving the friend request thinks he is the luckiest man on earth since a sexy women wants to be his “friend” and accepts the request, giving access to this stranger to his personal information. The woman contacts him, they begin a conversation, the conversation is taken to the Skype platform and eventually turns to “cyber-sex”, intimate videos are exchanged… Before he knows it, the victim is being told the video will be shown to family, employer and friends if he doesn’t send the amount they request; the amount can go anywhere from $100 to $5,000 USD and they request the money to be sent through a person to person money transfer to the Ivory Coast.

This is the latest scam affecting Costa Rican male professionals, 60% of them married, the rest single. The information was provided by Erick Lewis Hernández, chief of the cyber-crime unit of the OIJ, with the purpose of alerting the population of this situation and preventing new cases.

A total of 80 Ticos fell victims of this scam in 2016, and according to the police the first cases of this nature were reported in 2015.

The recommendation of the police is not to pay and close down the Facebook account, however, there are two cases one in 2015 and another in 2016 in which the victim’s video was posted to the YouTube platform.