KUCHING: Sarawak police have detained six individuals through an operation dubbed Ops Bugil for their alleged involvement in extortion entailing threats to disseminate victims’ obscene videos which had resulted in losses of RM22,200.

       Deputy police commissioner Datuk Mancha Ata said the six men were between 30 and 40 years old and two of them have drug-related criminal records.

       "The modus operandi of the syndicate is to contact the victim by masquerading as a sexy woman looking for acquaintances through the MiChat, WeChat, Facebook and WhatApp applications.

       "The syndicate then makes a video call to the victim and will perform obscene acts to get the victim to reciprocate and their acts will be recorded without the victim’s knowledge,” he told a media conference at the Sarawak Police Contingent Headquarters (IPK) here on Wednesday (May 11).

       Subsequently, he said the victims would be threatened and forced to pay a certain amount of money into a bank account provided by the syndicate.

       "As a result, the victims will experience emotional stress and shame due to financial losses and the threat to disseminate the naked images,” he said.

       The cases are being investigated under Sections 384 and 506 of the Penal Code he said, adding that police have also seized four mobile phones which were used in committing the crimes.- Bernama