Criminal gangs in Russia, operating through gay dating sites, have found a lucrative new blackmail target: homosexual men.

Gay Flag 2016

A St. Petersburg economist, one of their latest victims, said several men burst into the apartment where he was meeting his date. Claiming that his date was under age, they threatened to call the police and to release a video they had secretly filmed unless he paid up.

The gay rights group Vykhod, or Coming Out, said they registered 12 such attacks in St. Petersburg in 2015 and at least six more gay men have come to them so far this year. LGBT activists believe the real number is far higher and say the attacks have increased in the past two years.

Read more at nbcnews.com

Photo by Benson Kua [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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