Blackmailer Gets Five Year Sentence for 'Bait Ads' Scheme Targeting Gay Men

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A man who targeted gay victims around the Los Angeles area - and around the nation - in an online blackmail scheme got a five-year jail sentence, City News Service reports.

Tyler Buchanan, 29, ran the operation for six years, placing ads in Craiglist and Backpage, among other outlets, in which he insinuated that he was selling sexual services. Buchanan went buy the alias "Thuler O'Naill," reported the Santa Monica Mirror.

"Once a potential victim responded to Buchanan by contacting a listed phone number, the Nevada-based defendant would search online for personal information on the victim, then respond by text to elicit either conversation that was sexual in nature and/or an agreement to engage in a sex act for money, according to his plea agreement filed in Los Angeles federal court," explained City New Service.

Buchanan would then "threaten to report the victim to law enforcement for solicitation of prostitution," the story added, "unless extortion money was paid."

"Buchanan posted more than 1,300 bait ads for the scheme, demanding that victims make monthly payments ranging from $100 to $4,000," the story detailed.

In one exchange, Buchanan told a victim: "You'll pay for it one way or another. You choose.''

Buchanan told the court that he was "a damaged and angry person and desperate for money" when he began the scheme. "I broke the law and acted like a person I'm not proud of. I took money from other people and I scared them.''

The judge in the case, U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II, articulated a different take: "He tormented numerous victims over many years."

In addition to handing down the five-year sentence, Judge Wright also ordered Buchanan to repay his victims more than $67,000, the City New Service story said.