Victim of attempted blackmail warns of dangers of online dating

The victim of an attempted blackmailing has gone public to warn men of the dangers of meeting people online.

The man, known only as ‘Gary’, came forward yesterday to reveal that a woman whom he had met through Facebook had recorded a video call during which she stripped naked and performed sex acts on herself.

She threatened to release the video of Gary watching her to the public unless he paid her €5,000.

Gary’s story came to light on the Neil Prendeville Show on RedFM yesterday.

He said the woman, a foreigner, ‘accidentally’ messaged him on Facebook which led to them befriending each other online.

He revealed he checked in to a city centre location in November, after which the woman contacted him to say she was also in Cork.

They met, went for drinks, and went back to an apartment the woman claimed belonged to a friend of hers.

“She came across as the soundest girl I met in a very long time,” Gary said.

There was no further contact between the pair until last week, when she contacted him via video call. Gary said after ignoring a number of calls, he answered to see her naked lying on a bed.

“She started going to town on herself, if you get me,” he said. Gary said she asked him ‘to do stuff’ to himself on camera.

“I was kind of reluctant, I was just like ‘naw, I’m not into this fuss at all’,” he said.

Gary said after she had concluded the screen went blank, before he then received messages outlining her blackmail demand of €5,000.

“She played a video of me watching her, if you get me. She played it back over my phone to me and said ‘I will release this video to all your family members and the people of Cork’ and this and that,” he said.

Next, incredible story of single man Gary who's being blackmailed into paying €5000 to woman who made sextape of him pic.twitter.com/ujWunH1nSU

— Neil Prendeville (@NeilRedFM) January 11, 2016

However Gary, who is single, told the woman that he would not care if she released the footage, and said he laughed off her attempted extortion.

“It reminded me of American Pie, that’s why I was laughing through most of it,” he said.

Gary told Mr Prendeville he decided to go public because he feared the woman may attempt a similar scam with other men.

“She will catch someone. I actually take my hat off to her, she was professional. She is a pure scam artist. She’s not finished by any means I’d say. She could be doing it right now to someone else,” he said.

“Some people said to me I shouldn’t be on air saying it ..., but I feel this thing has to come out because she has to be stopped. She didn’t catch me but she will catch someone. Even if it’s one person, that’s five grand.”