MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WKRN) – A Murfreesboro man sent nude photos of himself to a woman, now police are investigating a case of extortion.

The man, who WKRN is not identifying, told police it started a conversation with someone he thought was an adult female on the social media website Mocospace.

But things got kind of dicey when he received a call from someone claiming to be the teenager’s father. Police said it was all a scam.

MocoSpace is a social media website where folks can chat and meet new people.

The 38-year-old man met a woman on the site. They started to exchange nude photos.

“When you are interacting with people online, you have no idea who that person is on the other side of the computer screen,” said Murfreesboro Police Spokesman Sgt. Kyle Evans.

The man told police the woman revealed she was actually a 16-year-old girl. He said he immediately ceased all communication and deleted every message.

Shortly thereafter, he received a call from someone claiming he was the father of the teen.

The man “demanded money or he was calling the police,” according to a police report.

“As a general rule, it’s best not to take naked pictures of yourself and put them on line,” Evans said. “Once they are out there, you can never get them back.”

Lipscomb University Professor Dr. Chris Simmons teaches a class on information security. He said typical scammers will use Ransomware to beat people out of money in order to remove it, but that’s not always the case.

“Attackers use social engineering as a means to lure its victims into providing information, albeit may be sensitive to escalate the type of attack,” Simmons said. “And from there, they get this type of information in this case extortion was used.”

Simmons said not everyone on the social media networking sites is looking for love; they are out to scam people.

“In this case, you actually have somebody that’s on a site exchanging information with somebody that they believe to be valid,” explained Simmons. “So, I would recommend using sites that are more reputable to exchange information.”

The Murfreesboro man did not send any money, according to police.