G
Guan Ping
Guest
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</td> </tr> <tr><td class="content_subtitle" align="left"> Tue, Jan 26, 2010
The New Paper </td> </tr> <tr> <td height="15">
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'S'pore man' offers illegal sex tours online <!-- TITLE : end--> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3" height="15">
</td> </tr> <tr><td colspan="3" class="bodytext_10pt"> <!-- CONTENT : start --> BY SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
A 'SINGAPOREAN' has been brazenly advertising sex tours in Vietnam through the Internet. On his website, the man, who claims to be a Singaporean and calls himself Ah Sam, offered to arrange sex tours to Ho Chi Minh City. He has even claimed he could provide virgin girls for sex, including those under 18.
Ah Sam, 37, who is based in Ho Chi Minh City, promised his clients a "dream sex holiday" and included his Vietnam-registered handphone number, Yahoo! Messenger, Skype and MSN Web Messenger accounts. The website also included photographs of some of the women, as well as supposed messages from former and potential clients.
Posing as a potential customer, a special correspondent for The New Paper on Sunday called Ah Sam on Tuesday to ask about his services. Ah Sam, who declined to say if it is his real name, confirmed the services and the women available. He said he could offer our correspondent young girls whose virginity could be verified.
When The New Paper on Sunday later contacted him about his activities, he spoke freely about the sex tours, despite knowing that he was speaking to a journalist. He said the women were at least 18 years old, though he had told our undercover correspondent earlier that some were 17.
Claimed to be surprised
He would be breaking Singapore law by providing such tours involving girls under 18. "Are you sure," he asked, though he insisted that the women involved were over this age. "I thought I would not be guilty of an offence if I did it in Vietnam, not Singapore."
It is an offence for any person to make travel arrangements for tours outside Singapore for commercial sex with minors under 18. It is punishable with up to 10 years imprisonment or a fine or both. Under Singapore law, anyone caught having commercial sex with a minor under the age of 18 here or overseas can also be jailed up to seven years and fined.
Vietnam laws prohibit anyone from organising or encouraging prostitution. Ah Sam, who said he has lived in Vietnam for six years, claimed he returns to Singapore once every nine to 12 months, but has never read news reports about the illegal nature of such activities.
Ah Sam said he used to live in Tiong Bahru before moving to Vietnam in 2003 to work as a cook in his friend's restaurant there. He said he later quit the job and became a freelance tour guide. Ah Sam, who said he is married to a Vietnamese woman and has two children aged 3 and 5, added: "When I offered "clean" tours, I did not earn as much money. Many of my customers wanted sex tours, so I began to offer sex tours in 2007."
He said he went into the sex tour business out of "interest" and claimed his wife knew what he did. Ah Sam, who claimed to have four Vietnamese "bosses", said he used to inform customers who signed up for sightseeing tours about the sex tours by e-mail, before setting up the website two months ago. He said the women on the website mainly work in brothels and massage parlours, and some of them are women he met on the street.
He said: "I approach them and tell them that I want to recommend them to my sex tour clients. The women then tell me their rates and I try to negotiate fair rates. "Then I update my website accordingly. The oldest woman is about 25 and the youngest are between 18 and 19 years old." When asked how he verifies the ages of the women, particularly the younger ones, Ah Sam claimed he could tell "by looking" at them.
Ah Sam said he operates his seven-day-a-week business from his home in Ho Chi Minh City and each client who wants a sex tour first pays an advance "intro fee" of 200,000 Vietnamese dong ($15). He said: "To pay my intro fee, each client first SMSes me his hotel and room number. Then he buys a 200,000 dong phone card and sends me the card's 14-number password by SMS.
"After we process the client's booking, I call the woman and tell her to go to the hotel room. The client pays her fee directly to the woman." Ah Sam said he gets a commission of 50,000 dong per room if the client takes the women to rooms in any one of four hotels in Ho Chi Minh City he was familiar with.
He said: "I don't get commissions from the other hotels in Ho Chi Minh City. If the client wants to cancel the order, he only needs to pay the woman 200,000 dong for her transport.
"At first, my wife was afraid I would be caught by the police, but I told her that everyone else (in Vietnam) is doing these tours too." Ah Sam admitted his activities are illegal in Vietnam but claimed to "know" the police there, who turn a blind eye to his activities. He claimed to get about six calls daily from potential clients for his sex tours. About 20 per cent are Singaporeans.
The rest, he said, come mainly from the US, Canada and Europe. Ah Sam claimed he also advertised on Google. When The New Paper did a Google search, there were at least two references to his website.
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The New Paper </td> </tr> <tr> <td height="15">
</td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr><td colspan="3"> <!-- TITLE : start -->
'S'pore man' offers illegal sex tours online <!-- TITLE : end--> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3" height="15">
A 'SINGAPOREAN' has been brazenly advertising sex tours in Vietnam through the Internet. On his website, the man, who claims to be a Singaporean and calls himself Ah Sam, offered to arrange sex tours to Ho Chi Minh City. He has even claimed he could provide virgin girls for sex, including those under 18.
Ah Sam, 37, who is based in Ho Chi Minh City, promised his clients a "dream sex holiday" and included his Vietnam-registered handphone number, Yahoo! Messenger, Skype and MSN Web Messenger accounts. The website also included photographs of some of the women, as well as supposed messages from former and potential clients.
Posing as a potential customer, a special correspondent for The New Paper on Sunday called Ah Sam on Tuesday to ask about his services. Ah Sam, who declined to say if it is his real name, confirmed the services and the women available. He said he could offer our correspondent young girls whose virginity could be verified.
When The New Paper on Sunday later contacted him about his activities, he spoke freely about the sex tours, despite knowing that he was speaking to a journalist. He said the women were at least 18 years old, though he had told our undercover correspondent earlier that some were 17.
Claimed to be surprised
He would be breaking Singapore law by providing such tours involving girls under 18. "Are you sure," he asked, though he insisted that the women involved were over this age. "I thought I would not be guilty of an offence if I did it in Vietnam, not Singapore."
It is an offence for any person to make travel arrangements for tours outside Singapore for commercial sex with minors under 18. It is punishable with up to 10 years imprisonment or a fine or both. Under Singapore law, anyone caught having commercial sex with a minor under the age of 18 here or overseas can also be jailed up to seven years and fined.
Vietnam laws prohibit anyone from organising or encouraging prostitution. Ah Sam, who said he has lived in Vietnam for six years, claimed he returns to Singapore once every nine to 12 months, but has never read news reports about the illegal nature of such activities.
Ah Sam said he used to live in Tiong Bahru before moving to Vietnam in 2003 to work as a cook in his friend's restaurant there. He said he later quit the job and became a freelance tour guide. Ah Sam, who said he is married to a Vietnamese woman and has two children aged 3 and 5, added: "When I offered "clean" tours, I did not earn as much money. Many of my customers wanted sex tours, so I began to offer sex tours in 2007."
He said he went into the sex tour business out of "interest" and claimed his wife knew what he did. Ah Sam, who claimed to have four Vietnamese "bosses", said he used to inform customers who signed up for sightseeing tours about the sex tours by e-mail, before setting up the website two months ago. He said the women on the website mainly work in brothels and massage parlours, and some of them are women he met on the street.
He said: "I approach them and tell them that I want to recommend them to my sex tour clients. The women then tell me their rates and I try to negotiate fair rates. "Then I update my website accordingly. The oldest woman is about 25 and the youngest are between 18 and 19 years old." When asked how he verifies the ages of the women, particularly the younger ones, Ah Sam claimed he could tell "by looking" at them.
Ah Sam said he operates his seven-day-a-week business from his home in Ho Chi Minh City and each client who wants a sex tour first pays an advance "intro fee" of 200,000 Vietnamese dong ($15). He said: "To pay my intro fee, each client first SMSes me his hotel and room number. Then he buys a 200,000 dong phone card and sends me the card's 14-number password by SMS.
"After we process the client's booking, I call the woman and tell her to go to the hotel room. The client pays her fee directly to the woman." Ah Sam said he gets a commission of 50,000 dong per room if the client takes the women to rooms in any one of four hotels in Ho Chi Minh City he was familiar with.
He said: "I don't get commissions from the other hotels in Ho Chi Minh City. If the client wants to cancel the order, he only needs to pay the woman 200,000 dong for her transport.
"At first, my wife was afraid I would be caught by the police, but I told her that everyone else (in Vietnam) is doing these tours too." Ah Sam admitted his activities are illegal in Vietnam but claimed to "know" the police there, who turn a blind eye to his activities. He claimed to get about six calls daily from potential clients for his sex tours. About 20 per cent are Singaporeans.
The rest, he said, come mainly from the US, Canada and Europe. Ah Sam claimed he also advertised on Google. When The New Paper did a Google search, there were at least two references to his website.
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