GLOUCESTERSHIRE Police are warning members of the public to be on their guard after a fraudster tried to extort money from a victim in a scam email.

On Christmas Eve the offender sent an email to a Gloucestershire resident, asking for 330 dollars to be transferred to them or compromising sexual footage of the victim would be sent to all of their email and social media contacts.

The sender claimed to be from Belarus and stated that they had recorded the victim through the camera on their computer.

Digital Intelligence Unit Detective Sergeant Sue Fereday said: "There is no suggestion perpe-trators had any compromising footage of the victim and this is simply a ploy to scam the vic-tim into handing over money.

"Thankfully in this case the victim didn't hand over any cash and told police straight away about the threats that had been made. If you find yourself in this scenario please contact po-lice and do not hand over any money."

This January, Gloucestershire Constabulary will be raising awareness of incidents such as this as part of its Sextortion campaign.

A police spokesman said: "Sextortion involves some sort of sharing of sexual images, videos or messages which are then used by the receiver to extort or blackmail the sender. This is of-ten done for financial gain but can also be used to exploit victims further.

"If you receive emails similar to this, or anyone threatens to share compromising footage of you, please contact police by calling 101."