The pub­lic is be­ing urged to re­main vig­i­lant as law en­force­ment of­fi­cials warn that ex­tor­tion is evolv­ing and tak­ing on mul­ti­ple forms, with crim­i­nals in­creas­ing­ly us­ing un­con­ven­tion­al meth­ods to iden­ti­fy and ex­ploit vic­tims.

The warn­ing was is­sued dur­ing the open-floor ses­sion of a fo­rum ti­tled Con­ver­sa­tions with the Com­mis­sion­er, fea­tur­ing Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro at the Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of Com­merce build­ing in West­moor­ings yes­ter­day.

Gue­var­ro said he had been in­formed of an emerg­ing ex­tor­tion tac­tic in which crim­i­nals use the pop­u­lar gay dat­ing app Grindr to tar­get in­di­vid­u­als they be­lieve to have fi­nan­cial means, in­clud­ing mem­bers of the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty.