JOHOR BARU: Even some middle-aged women seem to be in cahoots with online scammers, luring victims into sex and later threatening them with a video of the act.
Johor MIC Wanita chief N. Padma Devi related how she was befriended by a middle-aged woman on Facebook several years ago.
The two women started chatting and one day, Padma’s “friend” asked her whether she liked sex.
“I was taken aback. I instantly knew it was a trap but I wanted to see for myself what kind of scam it was and how the syndicate operated,” said Padma, 52.
The woman, who was supposedly from Malacca, suggested to Padma that she join a service which offered easy money without having to sleep with anyone.
It turned out to be an online prostitution syndicate, said Padma, who is a single mother and works as an accounts executive.
She was then told to provide her bank account number so that payments could be transferred there.
Within hours, Padma said a “customer” called her, offering RM500 for sexual services.
The money was promised to her before their “session” began.
“When I rejected him, he offered me RM1,000 without a second thought. He hung up when I turned him down again.
“I knew then that it was a scam to blackmail me with a video recording later,” she said.
Padma believed that there were more victims out there who were likely to be too ashamed to reveal their plight.
Bukit Aman statistics showed that Malaysian women were cheated of RM71mil last year by online scammers.
Padma said the scammers often preyed on lonely widowers and divorcees.
“Some of these women would innocently open up to their Facebook ‘friend’, confiding in her about their husbands or confessing their own marital affairs.”
They thought they were sharing private information with their “confidant”, but snapshots of the conversations would later be used to threaten these victims.
“If you spot something suspicious, it is always best to report the Facebook account and ignore the messages that come in,” she added.
