OAKLAND — Police here arrested a man for allegedly threatening to tell another man’s wife about the victim’s sexual interest in men, but when police confronted him about the alleged extortion he had a less-than-innocent explanation.
The suspect, a 26-year-old Oakland resident, explained he was simply a prostitute who’d been paid for sexual services by the victim. He also admitted to receiving a $2,000 “hush money” payment but said that was due to his disgust with the alleged victim, who he claimed had hired him when the victim’s kid was sleeping in the house, according to authorities.
Police were notified of the alleged extortion plot in January, by a man who claimed he had met the 26-year-old Oakland man on Grindr, a dating application for LGTBQ people. After the two met, the Oakland resident threatened to tell the victim’s wife about it unless he was paid $2,000, authorities said. Once receiving payment, the man allegedly sent the victim a second request for cash, according to authorities.
Police identified the suspect in part because Oakland police had already arrested him in a different case. He faces a pending misdemeanor animal cruelty charge for allegedly throwing his puppy against the wall in his apartment on Jan. 6, court records show. He was arrested on suspicion of extortion in late June, but still hasn’t been charged in that investigation.
The man claimed he never reached out to the victim’s family and didn’t mean to request the second payment, but that his finger must have slipped, authorities said.
Extortion plots via social media have become part of the wide berth of new age white collar crimes that took form with the proliferation of social media. The most famous such example was the massive data breach of Ashley Madison, a dating app for married people which was exposed to contain numerous fake profiles after the hack.
More recently, in Alameda County, police are actively investigating a man who was extorted for $30,000 after meeting someone on a Christian dating service. Things seem to be going fine until he received an unsolicited picture of female genitals, which was quickly followed by a purported San Francisco detective informing him he’d received child pornography and needed to pay $40,000 to avoid felony charges.
Meanwhile, in Pleasanton, authorities say they’re investigating reports that a social media influencer was sent $4,000 by someone who promptly began insisting she return the money, then sent her death threats and pictures of severed heads and mutilated human corpses when she didn’t immediately comply.
No arrests have been announced in either case.