Rising Threat: Tulsa Police Report Surge In Blackmail And Extortion Cases

Tulsa Police are seeing a major increase in blackmail and extortion schemes and victims are losing thousands of dollars.

Investigators say 99.9% of these schemes are coming from out of the country and that means there's really not much police can do, so the only people who can stop them are us, by not giving them money.

Investigators say in the last two weeks they've received up to ten new reports a day of people getting blackmailed. A new one they are seeing is where a schemer will send an innocent rideshare driver to do the dirty work.

Surveillance video shows a woman in Tulsa giving $5,000 to a man who she believes is going to bond a family member out of jail in another state. Someone pretending to be a defense attorney had emailed her and told her to meet the bondsman in Tulsa and sent an innocent Uber driver to pick up the money.

“All the suspect has to do is give the car, which is provided on your app, and the first name of the driver, and the victim unknowingly gives the money, and the Uber driver drives off. Well, he wants his money for the ride he's been hired for, and he takes it to the next location,” said Lieutenant Justin Ritter with the Tulsa Police Robbery unit.

Police tracked down the driver, who was not involved in the crime, but the woman's money was gone.

Investigators are also seeing criminals create explicit pictures of victims using the internet, then demanding money. Sometimes, criminals take violent pictures from the internet and send them to people and threaten to kill the victim and their family.

"They're not even in the country. Everything is done over the internet, so they have access to all this information. As scary as it is, it is what it is. If you want to spend the time on the internet you can find out a lot about people,” said Ritter.

He says some are taking pictures of people's houses or property and demanding money. Investigators say they will do whatever they can to help victims, but there's almost no way to track down the people behind these schemes because they could be behind a keyboard, anywhere in the world.

"I just think they are throwing out nets. They're just fishing, I mean I got one. I get reports from all walks of life victims,” said Ritter. "It's physically impossible for us to go overseas and try to track down someone that's on a keyboard somewhere."

Police say don't let curiosity get you. If you get a text message or email that looks weird, don't open it and if you do, never click on a link or scan a QR code and the more threatening a person becomes, the more you know it's a lie.