Blackmailers use fake sex photos to target two Chinese female officials
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 06 January, 2015, 2:54pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 06 January, 2015, 2:54pm
Nectar Gan [email protected]
Two female officials in Liuzhou city, in southern Guangxi province, received blackmail letters containing a fake sex photograph on the same day. Photo: Simon Song
Blackmailers created fake sex photos of two Chinese female officials to try to force them to hand over hundreds of thousands of yuan, China News Service reported today.
Both officials in Liuzhou city, in southern Guangxi province, received letters on Monday containing the same explicit photograph – with an image of each of their faces added to the picture of a woman in a sexual encounter with a man.
The increasing number of corrupt Chinese officials caught up in sex scandals has led mainland blackmailers to use forged sexually explicit photographs to help them extort money.
One of the female officials, identified by the alias “Ayuan”, was sent a letter by a “detective” who claimed to have been commissioned to follow and investigate her, the report said.
She was told to deposit 116,000 yuan (about HK$146,000) into a bank account within two days, or he would “strike a devastating blow to her” by handing the photos over to graft-busters and also uploading the pictures onto the internet.
Although the sexually explicit photo showed the man with a woman who appeared to be her, Ayuan discovered the image had been photoshopped – with her face and head added to the body of another woman, the report said.
“The editing skill was so bad that I spotted it immediately,” she was quoted as saying.
Ayuan told police the image of her in the picture had been copied from a photograph taken of her at a work-related event. She said the blackmailer had probably found and copied the photo on the internet.
The second female Liuzhou city official to be blackmailed found an image of her face had also been photoshopped onto the same picture of another woman with a man.
Police confirmed they were now investigating the two incidents.
In recent years, Chinese officials have been caught up in an increasing number of sex scandals. Many cases have come to light after incriminating photos were leaked online.
In the past, cases of adultery in China have usually involved male officials caught with their mistresses. But last November two female officials were reported by Shanxi graft-busters to have “committed adultery with others” – the first time a report was made public about Chinese female officials allegedly involved in adultery.
The increasing number of corrupt Chinese officials caught up in sex scandals has led mainland blackmailers to use forged sexually explicit photographs to help them extort money.
In March 2013, police arrested eight suspects in Hunan province who had allegedly blackmailed officials using fake sex photos.
The suspects had allegedly used the fake photos in 210 blackmail letters to demand a total of 45 million yuan from officials.
Police said the suspects, who had also prepared a further 150 blackmail letters, had already received 255,000 yuan.
Officials said carrying out a crackdown on the practice of forged sex photos, which had become an “illegal industry” in the region, was now a top priority for authorities, Xinhua reported.
In 2012, officials at the land and resources bureau in a county in Guangxi province reportedly blurred images of themselves featured on government websites to prevent blackmailers from making copies and using them in fake sex photos.
The officials said many of them had received blackmail demands using fake sex photos in the past two years.
