Dozens arrested in online ‘sextortion’ case
Print Edition
PHILIPPINE police, backed by Interpol, have arrested dozens of suspected members of an online extortion syndicate who duped hundreds of victims worldwide into exposing themselves in front of webcams or engaging in lewd chats, including a Scottish teenager who committed suicide after being blackmailed, officials said yesterday.
At least 58 Filipino suspects in Manila and three other regions were arrested this week after investigators from Interpol, the US Homeland Security Department and police from three other countries traced online chats from some of the victims’ computers, Philippine National Police chief Allan Purisima said.
More than 260 desktop and laptop computers, mobile phones, pornographic materials and other pieces of evidence were seized during the raids by 15 police teams, he said in Manila.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Senior Superintendent Gilbert Sosa, director of the Philippine police Anti-Cybercrime Group, said of the arrests.
Many more suspects and extortion gangs remain at large and will be pursued, he said.
Interpol said one Filipino syndicate, based in Naga city, southeast of Manila, operated with more than 100 members.
Police in the Chinese city of Hong Kong also helped identify another “sextortion” syndicate based in Bulacan Province, north of Manila, which targeted victims in Hong Kong, Britain, Australia, the United States and South Korea.
Easy access to the Internet, a relatively lower risk of arrest and big financial gains have caused such crimes to flourish in recent years in countries such as the Philippines.
The syndicates prey on mostly male victims by employing women with fake Facebook accounts who strike up online chats with them. The victims are duped into engaging in lewd talk, exposing themselves before a webcam or performing a sexual act which are recorded and used to blackmail them, police said.
Interpol said it was difficult to estimate numbers, but said there could be “hundreds of thousands” of such victims across the world.
They usually ask for US$500 from a victim but demands can reach US$15,000, Interpol said.
Hong Kong police Inspector Louis Kwan Chung-yin said more than 470 people from Hong Kong were victimized last year.
Three of the arrested Filipino suspects were believed to have victimized Daniel Perry, a 17-year-old mechanic, who took his own life by jumping off a bridge in Scotland in July after being blackmailed.
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