Extortion

Rare card · No. 61356

Extortion (also known as shakedown and exaction) is the practice of obtaining benefit (e.g., money, goods, or regular payments) from an individual or group through coercion, usually by threatening them with future psychological or physical harm. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence. Unlike extortion, robbery is the obtaining of goods using immediate personal violence, or the immediate threat of violence, usually in a one-off situation. Extortion is sometimes called the "protection racket" because the racketeers often phrase their demands as payment for "protection" from (real or hypothetical) threats from unspecified other parties; though often, and almost always, such "protection" is simply abstinence of harm from the same party, and such is implied in the "protection" offer. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime. In some jurisdictions, actually obtaining the benefit is not required to commit the offense, and making a threat of violence which...

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