November 19, 2018
Man charged over Facebook catfish scam

Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Saturday charged a man who created fake Facebook accounts to pose as a woman and extort money from men who fell for the girls and swapped nude photos with them.

Sok Bunly, a court clerk, yesterday identified the accused as Chan Boreth, 22, a jobless man living in Tuol Kork district.

He noted that the accused was arrested on Tuesday by anti-cybercrime department police and is charged with fraud and also threats accompanied by extortion. Mr Boreth faces up to three years in jail if convicted and is now in prison pending trial.

Major Ly Sopheak, an anti-cybercrime department police officer at the Interior Ministry, said that in early January the accused created several Facebook accounts, posing as girls and using photos of pretty women in the profiles.

Maj Sopheak noted that the accused’s accounts went by handles such as Mai Davika Love, Ny Ny and Phka Sbai Roeung.

He said Mr Boreth used these accounts to lure men to fall for the fake women.

Maj Sopheak said that after becoming friends, the accused would post nude photos or sex clips of the women he was posing as and ask the men to do the same.

“After the victims sent him the nude photos, the accused stored them on his phone,” he noted. “He kept the photos in order to extort money from them.”

Maj Sopheak said that during his interrogation, the accused admitted committing the offence and said that he had tricked 493 male Facebook users into sending their nude photos or sex clips.

He added that Mr Boreth also confessed that he had extorted money from nine men who paid him between $500 and $1,000 in exchange for not posting their photos.