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Shawn Rye, 23, posed as a "sexually available" young woman on internet video chat sites to lure his 43 victims into stripping and performing lewd sexual acts, which he recorded and then threatened to post to gay websites.
He also told his victims - from Australia, Canada the US and Britain- if they didn’t send him payments between $100 and $500 he would post the videos and pictures to their friends and family via Facebook.
At a County Court hearing in Melbourne this morning, Rye, from Croydon, pleaded guilty to 47 counts of blackmail over the six-month operation.
Prosecutor Julian Ayers told the court the planned and premeditated attacks saw Rye demand more than $12,000 from his victims.
Bank records revealed more than $7800 had been transferred to Rye from some of his victims.
Mr Ayers said the "unsuspecting" men thought they were talking to "a young and sexually available woman by the name of Sam or Melissa" at they time they were recorded.
"Whilst the unsuspecting men sent their own live images via the webcam, the accused played a pre-recorded video of a young woman via his webcam," he said.
"He would then suggest to the men to strip naked and masturbate …on a promise that 'she' would also strip naked."
Mr Ayers said after performing the sexual acts as requested , Rye would then reveal the scam and demand cash payments.
"If you don’t co-operate I will upload it and show one person a day until you see I’m serious, and then you can contact me via email when you want to pay and I’ll stop showing people," Rye told his victims.
"If you go offline, or don’t co-operate, I will upload the video of you …to a gay website," he told them.
Mr Ayers said Rye would then arrange for payment to be made, using his real name, through a Western Union money transfer.
He said Rye, who was not working at the time, had been trying to clear about $20,000 of debt and support his bodybuilding activities.
David Barrese, for Rye, said part of the money went to paying for protein powders that was costing him $300 a week.
He said while Rye had "overstepped the mark" he was "only asking for relatively conservative amounts" and "could have asked for more.
"He was just trying to get enough to get by," he said.
Mr Barrese said Rye had no prior convictions, and had not reoffended since his arrest in August last year.
"He knew it was wrong. It wasn’t intended to hurt anyone," he said.
Prosecutors have called for a maximum prison sentence of between four and five years over the scam.
Rye will be sentenced at a later date
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