22-year-old man arrested over credits-for-sex scam

22-year-old man arrested over credits-for-sex scam

The police arrested a 22-year-old man on Tuesday for his alleged involvement in a credits-for-sex scam.

Such a scam involves unknown women asking victims to buy for them online shopping credits through social media platforms, such as WeChat, in exchange for a date or sex.

The men could be asked to buy the credits at self-service machines and to send images of the receipt and personal identification numbers (PINs) of their ATM cards to the women through an e-mail.

Sometimes other members of the syndicates would contact the victims and ask them to buy more credits, police said.

In recent cases, victims were asked to leave their bank cards a public place and disclose their PINs before they could meet the women. The money in their accounts would then be pilfered.

At least 500 reports, involving more than $1.25 million, were made about such credits-for-sex scams between January and May this year, said a police statement.

To avoid becoming a victim, the public should be wary of strangers who try to befriend them online.

They should also not provide personal details, such as payment receipts containing PINs, when engaging with other Internet users, the police advised.

Anyone with information on the scam is urged to call 1800-255-0000 or 999 for assistance.

The arrested man will be charged in court for cheating related offences today.

 


This article was first published on June 18, 2015.
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