Six arrested for blackmailing victims with obscene videos
KUCHING: The police arrested six men, aged between 30 and 40, for their alleged involvement in extorting individuals in exchange for keeping indecent pictures or videos of the victims from being shared online.
Sarawak Deputy Police Commissioner Datuk Mancha Ata said the suspects were locals who acted as mule account holders for a syndicate.
“With their arrest, we believe we have solved four out of the six cases that we have received this year.
“The six cases involve a total loss of RM22,200 to the victims,” Mancha told a press conference at the Sarawak Police Contingent headquarters here yesterday.
During the arrest of the suspects in Kuching and Serian, police seized four smartphones which are believed to be used in committing the crime.
Mancha said the syndicate would employ women to make random calls to their victims to form some kind of friendship via applications such as MiChat, Facebook, WeChat and WhatsApp.
As the friendship develops, the women would then seduce their victims to perform indecent acts which were then recorded for blackmail purposes, he said.
“Background checks on the suspects revealed that two of them have previous records for drug-related offences.”
The case is being investigated under Section 384 of the Penal Code for extortion and Section 424 of the Penal Code for dishonest concealment of money.
According to Mancha, police had recorded 29 such cases in 2012, most involving men aged between 18 and 47, with total loss of RM114,730.
He added the police were still hunting down the mastermind of the syndicate – believed to be operating either locally or overseas.
“We would like to advise the public to be more aware of new friend requests on social media or chat applications. They must also be wary of unknown numbers calling or texting them,” said Mancha.
He also warned individuals not to ‘rent’ their bank account to any other person or syndicates for them to carry out illegal activities.
Sarawak Criminal Investigation Department head SAC Lukas Aket was also present at the press conference.