Head of the An­ti-Ex­tor­tion and Home In­va­sion Units, ACP Richard Smith, says there is a new trend be­ing used by crim­i­nals to ex­tort their vic­tims.

Speak­ing at a me­dia brief­ing at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing Fri­day, Smith said crim­i­nals are charg­ing vic­tims to neu­tralise sup­posed death threats, and when the vic­tims pay, they use that as lever­age for fur­ther ex­tor­tion at­tempts.

“One of the trends that we are see­ing as it re­lates to de­mand­ing mon­ey by men­ace or ex­tor­tion, some of the re­ports that we have been re­ceiv­ing is the fact that per­sons are call­ing the vic­tims and telling them that they have in­for­ma­tion or they were hired to kill the vic­tim. Now a vic­tim be­ing in fear would then say, okay, what can I do? That per­son, the per­pe­tra­tor, will now say I will take $40,000 not to kill you. They would al­so of­fer, make a coun­terof­fer as well, say­ing if you want me to get rid of the threat, you can pay me a fur­ther $20,000.”