NAKED women are being used to blackmail unsuspecting men across the North-East.

Crime gangs are exploiting internet users with sexually suggestive videos and chats, police have warned.

Gang members are posing as women in order to lure people into compromising situations that can be used as blackmail.

Their tactics include befriending men over social media and encouraging them to take part in a webcam conversation.

According to a number of men, the conversations will become increasingly more suggestive before the man is encouraged to strip or engage in a sexual act.

Unbeknown to victims, that act is being surreptitiously recorded while the woman they interact with is usually a pre-recorded video.

Blackmailers will then demand money after threatening to expose the men by posting explicit videos of them to social media.

A statement from Durham Constabulary urges men to think carefully before engaging in explicit conversations or acts with strangers.

DC Jonathan Stoker said: "The victim is persuaded to create a Skype or video chat profile to they can use their webcams and microphones to talk and then engage with these women.

"However on a lot of these occasions this is in fact a pre-recorded video.

“The victim is then encouraged to join in, unbeknown to them the suspect is recording them. In the vast majority of cases, the perpertrator demands money from them or they will post the video on social media sites.

“This then causes problems for the victim, who we have found come from all walks of life, as they become worried about friends and family finding out.”

Police would like to encourage any victims to report the scam via non-emergency number 101.

Have you been blackmailed online? Email joanna.morris@nne.co.uk.