Falling for catfishing scams is a real concern in Singapore. If not careful, we could end up in a world of hurt.
The State Courts recently convicted 25-year-old Adrian Tan Jun Jie of such a crime. He catfished girls into sending him nude photographs by posing as a female agent scouting for influencers.
At least 34 girls, aged between 11 to 18, fell prey to Tan’s elaborate scheme. As a result, he has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail.
The Straits Times (ST) reports that on 7 Apr, Tan pleaded guilty to seven counts of procuring the commission of an indecent act by a child, three of cheating, and one of criminal intimidation. He was sentenced to three-and-a-half years’ jail.
Another 26 charges were considered at the time of his sentencing.
The criminal acts started when Tan started browsing Instagram in Oct 2017. He was purportedly looking for girls he found attractive.
He then emailed victims under the fake persona of “Audrey Tay”, offering them a job as an influencer.
In Tan’s email, he typically promised the girls S$25 to S$50 a day. All they had to do was take photos of themselves in clothes that would be sent to them.
When those who were interested asked for more details, Tan moved the conversation to messaging app Line under a fake profile.
He began by asking the girls to send selfies, before going on to request for more revealing photos.
One of Tan’s victims, TODAY reports, was a 13-year-old girl. When she sent him nude photos, he told her to contact a male assistant named “JJ”. This was another one of Tan’s fake personas.
When they got in touch, “JJ” demanded that they meet to engage in sexual acts, but the girl refused. He then threatened to post her nudes on Facebook.
According to Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Hidayat Amir, the victim relayed the situation to her mother and lodged a police report. Fortunately, she did not meet Tan.
Another of Tan’s victims, ST reports, grew suspicious and stopped contacting him after a few months.
Tan proceeded to harass the victim via e-mail, pretending to be Audrey’s husband. He claimed that Audrey was worried about losing her job due to the victim’s lack of response, which might affect her pregnancy.
This convinced the victim to start responding to Tan again, and she sent him nude photographs.
District Judge Kamala Ponnampalam stated that over the course of his scheme, Tan targeted a “staggering number of victims”.
A total of 34 girls, aged 11 to 18, fell prey to Tan’s devious ways between 2017 and 2018.
In her final sentencing, District Judge Ponnampalam pointed out Tan’s opportunistic behaviour and how he pulled off “an elaborate enterprise” with the purpose of enticing minors.
Elaborating on the degree of manipulation exhibited by Tan, she explained, “The accused did befriend them, so to speak, and won over their confidence with the scheme.”
So there was certainly an element of abuse of trust.
The maximum sentence for convincing a child to commit an indecent act is a S$10,000 fine and a five-year jail term. Subsequent convictions will result in a S$25,000 fine, as well as a jail term of up to seven years.
Crimes targeting minors are truly of a heinous nature.
With Tan’s sentencing, his victims can hopefully have some peace of mind and put their troubles to rest.
Moving forward, we also urge everyone to be more vigilant whilst on the internet. If approached with a lucrative job offer that seems too good to be true, take a moment to look into it further, or you risk falling victim to a scam.
Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at news@mustsharenews.com.
Featured image adapted from Flickr.
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