A 52-year-old man in Singapore was recently forced to cough up S$9,000 (RM30,146) after his naked images and videos were used as blackmail by 2 female TikTokers who he had video called.
As reported by Shin Min Daily News, the victim, surnamed Xie, said that he only realised he was scammed after receiving 2 consecutive blackmail messages across 2 days.
He has since filed a police report after informing his parents about his unfortunate online encounters.
Xie also shared that he wanted to publicise his experience so that the public can stay vigilant and not fall into similar traps.
How it happened
According to Shin Min, Xie followed the first female TikToker’s account while scrolling through the app on March 4. The woman then asked him to chat with her on Telegram.
To Xie’s surprise, while chatting, the TikToker said she felt bored and invited him to join her in a video chat naked.
“The woman suddenly video-called me and took off her clothes. She then started to persuade me to take off mine too, and never gave up doing so even after I rejected the idea for a few times. She kept saying, ‘I only need to see you naked for a little while’.”
He eventually gave in and removed his clothes, she then asked him whether he would like to sexually relief himself where he then told her that they could go to a hotel together. However, she rejected his proposal and said that hotel rooms were expensive.
In the end, the two chatted naked for around 4 hours before ending the call.
The very next day (March 5), Xie explained that he started talking to another female TikToker and chatted with her naked as well.
However, this time around, he then received a text message from the first TikToker at 3pm, claiming she had the footage of their naked chat and asked Xie for S$5,000 (RM16,749)
Xie then received a call from a man who claimed to be a friend of the woman and that he threatened him that he would only delete the footage if Xie made a transfer immediately.
It was only until Xie was blackmailed by the second TikToker via text on March 6 that he realised he had fallen victim to a scam.
Reducing the ransom
Xie shared with Shin Min that as he was worried that the footage would be leaked, he bargained with the man and managed to reduce the ransom to S$2,500 (RM8,374).
“Initially, he asked me to make the transfer within 2 hours. However, I only transferred S$1,500 (RM5,024) on Monday because it was already quite late back then.”
However, after making the transfer, his blackmailer threatened him again and asked for the remaining $1,000 or the photos would be leaked.
After being blackmailed by the second TikToker via text for S$4,000 (RM13,399), Xie finally told his parents about his misfortunes.
“I didn’t tell my wife, but when my parents knew about what I did, they were very angry. My co-workers also called me stupid. My parents asked me to call the police and told me that I must have been scammed,” shared Xie.
After discussing his situation with the police, Xie said he has stopped making transfers and blocked his blackmailers.
“They still tried to contact me via WhatsApp afterwards. However, I didn’t bother to reply,” he added.
Besides the footage of his naked chat, Xie said that the text messages sent by his blackmailers also contained the names and phone numbers of more than 10 people in his contacts including his wife, parents, his manager, and colleagues.
However, Xie said he was puzzled by how the scammers managed to find out the information, as he did not download any apps during his chats.
We’re glad that Xie did not end up giving in and transferring the scammers the full amount. Let this serve as a reminder to all of us to be careful with strangers.
Also read: M’sian Engages In Naked Video Call, Gets Blackmailed & Pays Scammer Up To RM20K
