A number of men in Northern Ireland who were filmed performing sex acts have been targeted by blackmailers.

A spokesman for the Police Service of Northern Ireland said there had been several local reports of cyber-related blackmail relating to men in Newtownabbey, Carrickfergus and Antrim.

Later the police said that there were up to 62 victims over a seven month period who had been targets of the scammers.



The scam involved men being encouraged to film sex acts by blackmailers who then threatened to publish the footage on the internet. The PSNI said victims were told to pay into a Western Union bank account in west Africa or the recordings would be published on social networks.

DS Neil Maxwell said: “In the most recent cases, men of various ages have been asked to perform or participate in a sexual act online, which is recorded and then used to blackmail the individual with threats to upload the material on to social media platforms.

“Some victims have paid money because they have felt embarrassed and this usually involves a Western Union transfer to an account in the Ivory Coast. We want anyone who has been the victim of this type of crime to come forward. Do not feel pressurised into paying money as this is unlikely to resolve the issue,” the officer added.

A teenager in the region killed himself in June after what his family described as a “relentless” campaign of online bullying by a Nigerian gang.

Ronan Hughes, 17, from County Tyrone, was duped into posting intimate photos online after receiving pictures of a girl. He was then blackmailed for £3,000 by the gang who threatened to upload the images to his friends’ Facebook pages.