The Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) Johor Contingent has recently received 367 complaints related to extortion involving threats to spread nude videos of local men in their 20s to 40s who were foolish enough to expose their bodies during video calls from alleged single women. 

According to the Johor police chief Datuk Kamarul Zaman Mamat, to date, 144 investigation papers have been opened involving losses of RM500,000 to RM1 million. He said the victims, who range from single and married men, were allured by these scammers through social media platforms such as MiChat, WeChat, and the WhatsApp application.

Lonely men are this syndicate's primary target and with the allure of attractive women, these men were willing to be on a video phone naked while talking to these women they thought were genuine. Little did they know, their actions were silently recorded and were eventually used to blackmail the victims and force them into paying a large sum of money if they don't want the explicit videos to be leaked. 

According to Datuk Kamarul Zaman, in most cases, the syndicate would influence the victim to perform p*rnographic scenes before recording their act. "Victims would then be asked to make the payment if they want to prevent the video from being spread."

Following this, the police have arrested seven individuals involving three local men and a foreign man recently, through Op Bugil. "The suspects are 25 to 54 years old and were detained around Penang, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, and Johor." he added. "To date, 25 cases have been successfully resolved and we are still tracking down some members of the syndicate," he said.