JOHOR BARU: Police have arrested two men believed to be mule account holders for a syndicate involved in sexual extortion cases.
Johor police chief Comm Ab Rahaman Arsad said the suspects, aged 27 and 30 years old, were arrested in two separate raids around Johor Baru and Melaka on Aug 18.
“The arrests were the result of investigations following a police report lodged by a 23-year-old man who alleged that he had been lured into making a sexual video call with a woman he met on a dating app.
“The call was secretly recorded by the syndicate and the man was later threatened with exposure of the footage unless he paid up.
“Fearing exposure, the victim transferred RM3,600 to a bank account provided by the syndicate before lodging a police report on Jan 3 in Kluang,” he said in a statement Friday (Aug 22).
Comm Ab Rahaman said initial investigations revealed that the syndicate, which has been active since December last year, had been using attractive women to lure victims into making explicit video calls before using the recordings to blackmail them for money in stages.
“Investigations showed the duo received between RM100 and RM200 from the syndicate for each transaction as payment for allowing their bank accounts to be used,” he added.
He said the suspects are expected to be charged on Friday (Aug 22) under Section 424C(1) of the Penal Code for allowing their bank accounts to be used for illegal transactions.
Comm Ab Rahaman also reminded the public not to lend or share their bank account information with third parties, warning that they could unknowingly become involved in criminal activities.
He further advised the public not to fall prey to risky online dating applications that may be exploited as a medium for crime.
Those with information on the “Ops Bugil” syndicate or other criminal activities may contact the Johor police hotline at 019-279 2095 or the operations room at 07-221 2999.
