By JEFF STITT
Allegheny County police Inspector Andrew Schurman alerted residents Friday about an individual who recently posed as an Allegheny County police officer as part of a scam that uses the sending of nude photos of teenagers to extort money from county residents.
The victim, whose name and age has not been revealed, was using the Hily dating app on his cell phone and met what he thought was a female between the age of 16 and 18, according to Schurman.
Hily is an online dating application that employs machine learning and artificial intelligence to match prospective partners. An acronym for “Hey, I Like You,” the app is designed to recommend potential matches by analyzing users’ backgrounds, interests and app activity.
The male exchanged phone numbers with the person he thought was a teenage girl and they began a text message conversation. As they swapped messages back and forth, the victim began receiving unsolicited naked pictures from the female, who confirmed she was under the age of 18. The victim deleted the text conversation and pictures, Schurman said.
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