17YO Posed As Modelling Agency & Tricked 15YO Into Sending Nudes, Then Extorted Money From Her

As the saying goes, “the internet is a dangerous place”; and this cannot be truer than in the following case out of Malaysia.

Sending Nudes to a Modelling Agency – Bad Idea

According to World Of Buzz, a 15-year-old Sabahan girl was tricked into sending over nudes to a person claiming to represent a modelling agency.

The victim was contacted by the perpetrator on Instagram in March and was promised modelling gigs.

After a few conversations, the trickster persuaded the victim to send over nude photos for the purpose of clothes sizing guidance.

Bad Idea.

The victim eventually succumbed to persuasion and sent over a few photos, including semi-nude ones.

She however noticed something was amiss and stopped all communication with the fraudster.

Repercussions 

Unluckily for the victim, the perpetrator texted her some time after on Instagram.

He demanded a ransom of RM500 (about SGD$165) and should the victim fail to deliver, he was adamant that her nude photos would have gone viral all over the internet.

The girl, terrified by the message and its consequences, reported to the police on 5 April.

Police and Thief Fraudster

Following the complaint, the investigation led the police to a Instagram account user by the name of @fordhaneem.

At the same time, the girl received another message from a person named Harith who claimed that he had obtained the girl’s nudes from @fordhaneem.

District police chief Deputy Superintendent Azmir Abd Razak was quoted as saying:

“This individual also demanded that she pay him money to prevent the pictures from being spread to more people. However, the victim did not make the payment and she suspected the two individuals (@fordhaneem and Harith) were the same person.”

Making quick work out of the investigation, the police successfully traced the messages to a 17-year-old in Kemunting, Perak, whom was promptly arrested.

The teen is now being investigated under Section 12 of the Sexual Offences Against Children 2017.

If found guilty, he will face a maximum of five years in prison and whipping.

Quite Common

This isn’t the first time we’ve read about such extortion cases.

Back home in October 2018, Chinese national Zheng Haoran was jailed for 10 weeks after threatening his lover with posting her nude photos online after the woman had ended their extramarital affair.

Zheng pleaded guilty to one count each of insulting the woman’s modesty and criminally intimidating her.

A tri-party case took place earlier in 2015.

Having received a woman’s nude photos from her disgruntled ex-boyfriend, Alexandra Chan Chee Meng used them to blackmail the woman into having sex.

For his part in the crime, Chan was sentenced to two months’ jail after pleading guilty to a charge of criminal intimidation in May 2018.

The woman’s ex-boyfriend was dealt with earlier in court and was sentenced to two months’ jail for distributing the obscene photos.

So folks, what can we learn from this?

Text lah, don’t send images.

Geddit?