The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warns of extortion scammers targeting the LGBTQ community via online dating apps such as Grindr and Feeld. As the FTC revealed, the fraudsters would pose as potential romantic partners on LGBTQ dating apps, sending explicit photos and asking their targets to reciprocate. If they fall for the scammers' tricks, the victims will be blackmailed to pay a ransom, usually in gift cards, under the threat of leaking the shared sexual imagery with their family, friends, or employers. "To make their threats more credible, these scammers will tell you the names of exactly who they plan to contact if you don't pay up. This is information scammers can find online by using your phone number or your social media profile," the FTC said.

Demands by a former Uber Technologies Inc. employee Ric Jacobs, who was granted $4.5 million this year in a settlement agreement over his claims about the company's secrecy measures, were "clearly extortionist," said one of Uber's top attorneys Wednesday. "Given the huge sums of money that Mr. Jacobs was demanding at the outset, I felt it was clearly extortionist, especially given the low value of his claims," said Angela Padilla, Uber's deputy general counsel, testifying at a hearing in federal court related to Google parent Alphabet Inc.'s suit against Uber over trade secrets allegedly stolen from Alphabet's Waymo unit, which is developing self-driving cars. But the judge challenged Ms. Padilla's claims regarding Mr. Jacobs's demands. "People don't pay that kind of money for'B.S.,'" he said. Mr. Jacobs has been retained by Uber to help investigate his own claims, in conjunction with law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP.