BOULDER, Colo. — The University of Colorado Boulder Police Department is warning the CU community and public at large of known cases of sextortion of CU students by overseas criminals.

CUPD is investigation two recent cases where a criminal overseas has engaged in sexually explicit activity with a CU student over Skype, recorded the student and then threatened to publish the video unless the victim wired a large amount of money.

According to CUPD, here’s how the scam works: The suspect friends the victim on Facebook. They exchange messages and eventually the student and female suspect have a video conversation on Skype. During the conversation, she asks the student to remove his clothes and engage in some form of sexual exchange. After the conversation ends, the suspect contacts the victim and threatens to share a video recording with his Facebook friends unless he sends money.

Neither student paid the suspect. The suspect has the same screen-name in both cases, “queenie lee.” Investigators have learned that the phone number for the suspect appears to be based out of Singapore.

CUPD says these two recent cases may be related to two reports filed in spring this year that had similar facts. In the first spring case, the victim did wire money to a party in the Philippines. In the second spring case, the victim was told to wire money to a party in Morocco, but did not.

It’s unknown if these sextortion suspects are specifically targeting CU students, college students across the country or just the general public.

Anyone with additional information on this scam is urged to contact CUPD Investigations Sgt. Steve Cowles at (303) 492-8168.