Woman: I'm not involved in scam
23 March 2008 (The Star)

KUALA LUMPUR: The woman whose photograph was used to lure a victim in a webcam extortion case has denied that she is the behind the scam.

Connie Cheong, 27, said she knew nothing about the case until her aunt called urging her to read a newspaper report about the extortion case that featured her photograph.

The scam was exposed on Thursday when a 25-year-old accounts clerk, who identified himself as A.T., said he was blackmailed of RM1,800 by a woman he had been chatting with online.

The woman, who threatened to post online his naked pictures taken through the webcam, called herself Lisa and had apparently used Cheong's photo to lure the victim.

"I was so surprised to see that it was a photo that I had uploaded to my Friendster account two years ago and so I immediately contacted MCA Public Services And Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong," she said.

Cheong, accompanied by her husband, met A.T. for the first time at the department yesterday and clarified that they had never crossed paths before, online or otherwise.

"I have not used my Friendster account for almost a year and I will delete it immediately," the mother of one said.

Chong will assist Cheong in lodging a police report and will submit all the relevant information that IT technicians have managed to find out through A.T.'s online communication with Lisa.

"Cheong is as much a victim in this case as A.T.," Chong said.

"The culprit will be exposed because we have the information to track him or her down," he added, assuring that the identity of any other who came forward would be kept confidential.

According to Chong, the videos that were used to blackmail A.T. have been deleted from the Internet since news of the extortion scam broke.

He advised Internet users, especially females, to be more careful when uploading their photographs online.