You are clear this is a shake-down? The Badger Game? Call the police.
I wonder why this scam seems to be so common in SC? Most of the threads seem to start in that State, and more often than not have a connection with POF, sometimes CL but POF is big. My impression is that this is a reasonably organized scammer, or scammers and when you report this, you should press for answers about what is or can be done to .. "round up the usual suspects"? Or something along those lines.