PUBLISHED ONJanuary 29, 2026 4:45 AMBYChing Shi JieAfter discovering that her photos were used without consent in an advertisement for a sugar dating website, Singaporean DJ and social media personality Jade Rasif sued its Malaysian founder.
In a series of Instagram Stories on Jan 21, the 32-year-old revealed that she accepted a RM100,000 (S$32,000) settlement from Darren Chan of Sugarbook in 2023.
Her three-year ordeal, which began in 2020, has cast a spotlight on the recent deluge of non-consensual sexualised images circulating online.
In an interview with AsiaOne on Tuesday (Jan 27), Rasif said she had rejected Sugarbook's approach to work with them.
Sugarbook promises to link younger women with older men who are expected to provide financial support in exchange for companionship — with or without intimacy.
Rasif later found out that the website used her photos in its promotional material after being tagged on Instagram.
According to court documents seen by AsiaOne, on March 2020 Sugarbook created a collage comprising four of her photos with the hashtags #sugarbaby and #sugardating.
"I was shocked and disgusted. The entire website is disgusting," Rasif said, adding that the advertisement circulated in Telegram groups, where users speculated about her source of income.
"At that time, I was a DJ who lost her job during Covid-19, and my social media career was only just taking off. I stayed quiet because I was scared it would derail everything."
She began legal action against Sugarbook's parent company, Endeavor Standard, in a Malaysian court in 2021. The case dragged out due to the pandemic, which, she added, ironically "worked in my favour".
In February 2021, Chan, 39, was arrested by Malaysian police under anti-prostitution laws.
Rasif said that he requested mediation and later agreed to an out-of-court settlement, after his arrest.
Asked why she had chosen to speak out three years after her lawsuit, Rasif, who has a seven-year-old son, said: "I still get accusations (of being on Sugarbook) whenever my Instagram reels go viral.
"So, I decided it was time to clear the air instead of letting the Internet keep writing fan fiction about my life."
AsiaOne has reached out to Chan for comment.
Her experience comes amid a growing backlash against users who create and share sexualised images of real people online without their consent.
Made easier by artificial intelligence tools, a study by international non-profit organisation Centre for Countering Digital Hate published on Jan 22 found that Grok generated about three million deepfakes on social media platform X in less than two weeks.
On Jan 15, Grok announced that users on X can no longer be able to digitally undress people, but Rasif said that the issue of deepfakes is "only getting worse".
"I have seen my face being used by faceless AI accounts selling OnlyFans pages," she said, adding that a Cambodian-based online casino even ran YouTube advertisements using deepfake images while "cloning" her voice.
"Unlike Sugarbook, there's no one to sue. It's just out there. That's the scary part."
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chingshijie@asiaone.com
