'It caused me embarrassment': Victim says footage of her changing clothes in H&M Malaysia outlet sold online

Finding indecent pictures or videos of yourself circulating online is probably a woman's worst nightmare.

This was what happened to one Malaysian woman, who discovered that she was among the victims whose videos were taken while trying out clothes in a fitting room at a H&M outlet in Kuala Lumpur (KL).

As seen in Twitter user @meleisgw's post on Sunday (Jan 8), one woman came out to say that she's in a state of panic trying to locate the source of the videos.

"May I know where those videos come from? As one of the people in that video is me, it caused [me] embarrassment when it was posted publicly," wrote the woman in a message to @meleisgw who exposed the incident.

"I hope that you can help me."

The woman claimed that the video was taken in a H&M changing room.

"By the way, if I'm not mistaken, the fitting room is at H&M, because I bought [the] shirt there, the videos might be [taken] on Oct 6, 2022," she added.

In the screenshot that @meleisgw shared, five individuals could be seen in the post, with the caption "PM if want to buy".

In an interview with the Malaysia news media Says, @meleisgw said "these videos are being sold on Twitter and people have already purchased them.

"Someone said these videos were originally advertised on the MeWe application."

The tweet has since been deleted.

Camera could not be found

Noor Dellhan Yahaya, assistant commissioner of Dang Wangi, a neighbourhood in the Malaysian capital, said the security manager of the KL outlet made a police report on Monday afternoon after seeing a message about the video being circulated on WhatsApp.

"An 11-second video from the hidden camera was uploaded to Twitter," he said in a statement on Monday, reported The Star. 

"We sent our personnel there to investigate and could not find the camera. We believe it happened at another location."

He also reassured the public that they are "taking this matter seriously and will conduct a thorough investigation to bring those responsible to justice".

H&M: Customers' safety of utmost importance

In response to the allegations, the Sweden-based clothing company released a statement indicating that they have conducted inspections of all fitting rooms in Malaysia.

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H&M also promised to "ensure that there are no security breaches that will compromise the privacy of [its] customers, as their safety is of utmost importance to [them]".

However, some netizens were not so convinced.

Horrified by this incident, one commented "so all this while [there really is a] hidden camera?"

There were also comments urging victims to sue the clothing company.

ALSO READ: Former HDB director guilty of filming nude men in changing rooms

celest.tham@asiaone.com