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South Florida Woman Accused of Extorting Man After Craigslist Hookup

A South Florida woman was charged with extortion after she had sex with a man suffering from Stage 4 cancer that she met on Craigslist, and then claimed to be underage, threatening to turn him in to police if he didn’t give her thousands of dollars, police said.

The 67-year-old victim told detectives he met Vanessa Lateisha Hall, 28, on the online classifieds website after posting an ad seeking someone "to keep him company."

Hall agreed to meet the victim and told him she did not want money, “just fun for the both of us,” according to a Delray Beach Police arrest report.

On August 10, Hall went to the victim's home and they had sex, the report said. Hall then told him she was only 17 years old and threatened to report him to the police and tell her father unless he took her shopping and gave her money.

The victim took Hall to the mall and spent more than $7,300 on purchases, the report said. Hall called the man several days later and demanded another $3,500 for a down payment on a car. She alleged to have taken photos of the victim while they were having sex and said she would go to the police if he didn't give her the money.

When the man refused she told him he would need to come up with $8,000, if not more, to pay for a lawyer "because she was turning him in," the report said. He stopped replying to her messages and went to police. According to the report, the victim told police the stress from Halls threats were going to give him a heart attack.

Detectives were able to track down Hall from the phone number she used to contact the man and a receipt from a Sprint store where the victim made a purchase during her shopping spree, police said. They then discovered she was actually 28 years old, the report said.

Hall was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Palm Beach County jail where she remained on $10,000 bond Thursday, records showed. It was unknown if she's hired an attorney.

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