Over the last year and a half, dozens of men in the Flagstaff area have been victims of a blackmail scam. Flagstaff Police Sgt. Cory Runge says victims are scammed into engaging in online video chats. Runge says a person will make contact with the victim via an internet chat platform and convince victims to engage in sexual acts, and record it from the other end. The scammer will then demand threatening to post the video on the internet. Runge said the amount varies to several thousand dollars. He says the vast majority of the victims have been college-aged men. So far, Runge says about 50 victims come forward to the police department, though he says the number of victims is likely higher because many people are too embarrassed to report it. Runge says the investigation may point to the scammers being from outside of the United States.
