By The AsiaOne Techbot

In another case that closely resembles Hong Kong celebrity Edison Chen's nude photo scandal, a Chinese man was arrested for falsely threatening 88 celebrities with exposing their nude photos unless they paid him not to do so.

The incident, which has now gained notoriety online as the Beijing Edison Chen case, started when an unemployed man managed to obtain the celebrities' contact numbers through a neighbour's computer.

According to a report by Shin Min Daily News, the 29-year-old man from northeastern China stole contact information belonging to 88 celebrities when he was repairing a computer. The computer belonged to his neighbour, who is a director.

Using this information, the man then sent text messages from his mobile phone, threatening each celebrity with a nude photo scandal unless they paid up.

His message, translated from Chinese, began with "XX, I have with me copies of your nude photos and sex pictures." He then demanded 300, 000 yuan ($63,000) from each celebrity.

The case came to light on 29 July when a Beijing singer in her 50s turned up at a police post in the Chaoyang district, informing officers of the text message that she had received.

According to Shin Min, the man had spent three years studying in Russia, but was unemployed at the time of his arrest.

It was believed that he had stolen the celebrities' contact information on an earlier date, and had only sent the threatening text messages when he needed money to pay his mother's medical bills.