TAICHUNG, Taiwan -- Before sending your laptop to a repair shop, remember to delete all your steamy photos.

A male computer engineer in Taichung City reportedly duplicated private photos from a female client's laptop without her knowledge.

He then expressed his romantic interest to her online while sending her the topless photos he had stolen from her.

The angry female student reported this to the local government's mediation committee, and received NT$250,000 ($10,772) in compensation.

According to police, the female college student, surnamed Wong, 24, sent her laptop to a repair shop this past June.

The computer engineer, surnamed Hsu, 25, discovered several sexy photos of Wong, including the victim topless and almost naked, then duplicated these onto his memory drive.

The next month, Hsu contacted the victim through the instant messenger information he obtained from her laptop, and sent her messages like, "you are so hot and sexy." Then he sent her the racy photos of herself, which he had stolen from her computer files.

After the female student suspected the man to be the same engineer who fixed her laptop, she filed a police report under the law for privacy protection.

The offender confessed he stole the pictures out of curiosity and sought help from the mediation committee; the victim agreed to dismiss the case for a NT$250,000 settlement.

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