Hello experts:

If you shoplift and get caught, but the store tells you that if you pay a HUGE fine, they won't turn you in to the cops, is this extortion??

excon

Yes, it's the same tactic the RIAA use for music download lawsuit threats.

I don't think it's extortion at all. It is probably a good way for the shopkeeper to recoup their losses from the OTHER times the perp shoplifted and didn't get caught.

If they did this in the US instead of running everyone through the courts, it would actually work as more people would be paying the store back for all the stuff they swiped for years and never got caught doing it.

Canada does make more sense that way. Maybe that's why they are so lenient on their klepto's.

Merely a legal form, but that is common, you pay taxes or they can come in and freeze your bank accounts,