Red flags for ‘rewards': Teen girl loses more than money to scammers, ‘Ah Long' on Telegram app
Here's how it happened.
The teenager who was keen to make extra money, stumbled on a Telegram chat group that offered users a reward of RM250 a day to complete several tasks online.
She joined and paid RM500 upfront, only to find out that she was locked out of the payment platform after completing the assigned tasks.
She was then told to pay RM1,000 to settle the issue and recommended to apply for funds from a loan shark called 'Terry' who told her to send nude pictures of herself as collateral.
After doing so, she was still refused entry into the online payment platform; instead, she was told to apply for a bigger loan of RM3,000 this time.
But 'Terry' rejected her second application, supposedly because she had yet to settle her initial debt, forcing the girl to disclose the matter to her parents who collected RM1,500 as settlement.
But this too was snubbed by the loan shark who allegedly said the payment was now too early and 'messed up his system'.
This time, he demanded the girl pay RM15,000.
'The loan shark threatened me and my family that if I didn't settle my debts, he would release my naked photos online,' the 14-year-old girl, who went to MCA Public Services and Complaints Department here today, was quoted as saying.
MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong said the 14-year-old girl was one of three people who reported having been blackmailed after sending their nude photos to loan sharks today.
'We are extremely concerned that even someone as young as a 14 could get caught up in borrowing from loan sharks and end up facing extortion,' he was quoted as saying.
The girl's case is currently under investigation by the police's Sexual, Women and Child Investigation Division, according to Wanita MCA secretary-general Ivone Low.
Low urged the government to take concrete steps to protect this vulnerable group.
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