Money Demanded After Sexually Chatting with a Minor on a Dating Website

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Arizona

Several weeks ago I was talking to an individual on POF. This girl then asked me to text her as it would be easier to communicate. When we started texting I found out she was two weeks from becoming 18 years of age. This was found out after there had already been one sexual message sent from me and one from her. I then explained my frustration at the fact and explained that she may very well have gotten me in trouble as Arizona has a no tolerance law for this. The conversation ended. I deleted the image and whole conversation and moved on. The next day a man contacted me claiming to be her father and proceeded to threaten me with legal action if I didn't pay to have her cell phone shut off. The amount was $1700. What are the legal ramification for me if I refuse? What should I do?

It's a scam. Don't pay. They could theoretically report you to the authorities but scammers don't normally like to involve the police in their scams.

P.S. These scams are extremely prevalent on the "anonymous" sexting/chat sites. I'd get off of them and go try the real world.

You are being conned. And likely have been talking to a 40 year old man the whole time.

Absolutely nothing. It's a known scam. Ignore the man completely, forget about it, and move on.

Thanks for the quick replies! That's what I was thinking but it does make me nervous of course. My intentions were not to pursue a minor obviously. I just don't want to get in trouble for it.

Stop sending sexual message to people you don't know and you should be fine in the future.

Once again, someone perusing a sexual chat site gets scammed. Why oh WHY don't people just stick to real people? Talking worked for our ancestors, and even this quaint custom called "dating." Guess that's too much these days ... guess we're all too busy to have relationships. :rolleyes:

I do not see the issue with people meeting someone from a dating site. The precursor to that was personal ads. If people solely consider it a "relationship" if all they do is talk online then that's wrong. My brother met his girlfriend online and they have been together like five or so years and have a child together. I know people who have used online dating and met someone and ended up married or in a relationship. It just depends on the site you are using.

Now POF - everyone knows that is a hook up site. Like Tinder. I do not know why people send sexual messages to strangers online - that is stupid. Completely stupid. But I don't see an issue if people are using the sites to actually meet someone to date and not just to send weird sexual messages.

Let's realize that even if you went to say a singles group and met someone like that, you still have the possibility of meeting a psycho or sexual predator.

An online dating site does not tend to generate the posts to this board, other boards, or the police. Posting to hookup sites can cause no end of issues - legal and otherwise.

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Quoting cdwjava

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An online dating site does not tend to generate the posts to this board, other boards, or the police.

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Agree. I was an HR Generalist-then-Manager for almost five years at a reputable multinational IVR and online dating service and it was, well, reputable. No scams, no criminal activity. The occasional complaint (there's always someone who wants to blame the messenger when getting dumped), yes, but nothing major or criminal. Lots of weddings though! :D