This insidious scam targets mostly horny dudes. The criminal poses as a woman online, strikes up a conversation with one of the aforementioned horny dudes, and requests a nude picture. When “she” receives it, sexy-time is over and extortion-time begins. The scammer texts something like, “I will send this photo to your entire contact list if you do not send me money.” Embarrassed and afraid of being found out, the mark does as told. A variation involves the scammer sending nude pictures to the victim, then sending a message from “her” “father,” that says something like, “My daughter is only 15, and if you don’t send me money, I’ll tell the police you have child porn images of her.”
How to spot and avoid this scam: One answer is to not take pictures you wouldn’t want shared with your contact list. If you send compromising pictures to a scammer, you’re probably going to be fine though. Unless it’s some kind of personal grudge, a scammer probably won’t send your picture to anyone: It takes time they could use scamming someone else, and once they share your picture, you have no reason to send them money anyway. So just block, report, and move on.