COMMENT | Don’t get caught in your 'birthday suit'
COMMENT | The recent pandemic has many business owners in our country working even harder for their money. Despite that, a lot of businesses closed down. Many people lost their jobs. Their savings also dried up to the extent that some considered ending their lives.
There are also those who tried to diversify and ventured into other businesses. Many opted for online businesses with some becoming YouTubers and Instagrammers, or in other words, social media influencers.
Most, if not all, of these activities are done by people in the comfort of their homes. It is also welcoming that many have been given the green light by their companies to work from home (WFH).
WFH is like hitting two birds with one stone. You will be staying at home to help the nation to flatten the curve of Covid-19. At the same time, you will be productive and serve the nation by improving its economic fundamentals. This is a brilliant measure indeed. However, one should bear in mind that the practice of WFH is not without its risks.
While people are struggling to earn a decent income during this pandemic by WFH, there is also a growing number of people who resort to illegal ways to make easy money online...
COMMENT | The recent pandemic has many business owners in our country working even harder for their money. Despite that, a lot of businesses closed down. Many people lost their jobs. Their savings also dried up to the extent that some considered ending their lives.
There are also those who tried to diversify and ventured into other businesses. Many opted for online businesses with some becoming YouTubers and Instagrammers, or in other words, social media influencers.
Most, if not all, of these activities are done by people in the comfort of their homes. It is also welcoming that many have been given the green light by their companies to work from home (WFH).
WFH is like hitting two birds with one stone. You will be staying at home to help the nation to flatten the curve of Covid-19. At the same time, you will be productive and serve the nation by improving its economic fundamentals. This is a brilliant measure indeed. However, one should bear in mind that the practice of WFH is not without its risks.
While people are struggling to earn a decent income during this pandemic by WFH, there is also a growing number of people who resort to illegal ways to make easy money online.
The latest trend in this regard is applying the 'mirror effect' to hoodwink social media users, and eventually hold them at ransom. Lately, these activities are on an upward trend.
The number of police reports regarding these incidents is alarming. In Selangor alone, 180 reports have been lodged for this year from January to November. Most of the victims were men from 20 to 40 years old. You might be asking yourself what on earth is 'mirror effect' and how is it done?
Understanding the 'mirror effect'
The 'mirror effect' is an age-old manipulation technique. It is a reflection of one’s self through the gaze of others and can be obtained directly from another person through observation, listening to them, or by watching a video.
When you are on social media, you might have come across attractive females who want to befriend you. Don’t you think it's too good to be real? Yet, people still got into trouble by letting these over-friendly strangers have a chat with them.
After becoming friends successfully, their next move is to start a video chat. After a few minutes of flirting and gaining the confidence of their victims via the video call, they will start to remove their clothes one by one to lure their victims more.
This is the opportune time for the perpetrators to apply the 'mirror effect' to the detriment of the poor men’s dignity. In other words, they would instruct the men to also remove their clothes.
Realising the victims had already taken the bait, the newfound friends would snap the victims’ inappropriate pictures in no time. After that, usually after a few hours or days of the first kinky video chat, the victims would receive a message. In the message, the so-called sexy new friends would demand money in order to keep the inappropriate pictures from being circulated on social media.
The common social apps and the modus operandi (MO) used by these femme fatales are Mechat, Wechat, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, and Whatsapp. Apart from this, websites such as Godate2night and Locanto.Asia also being used.
For instance, via Facebook, these scammers would use fake identities to befriend the victims. After gaining access, they would switch to Facebook Messenger to start a conversation. And then they would convince the victims to make a Video Messenger call to apply their 'mirror effect'. Some even straight away appear naked in their video calls for faster results!
The victims, out of fear of being shamed on social media, won’t think twice to pay the ransom. Nevertheless, they report the incidents after being dried out of money and ready to face the consequences, no matter what. Of course, men always become the target of opportunistic femme fatales roaming social media.
A similar MO is also being used via Mechat, Wechat, and also Whatsapp. Therefore it's incumbent on us, the men, to be wary all the time on social media, of these, too good to be real, social media friends.
Just take a second or two whenever you come across strangers, especially good-looking females who want to befriend you. Don’t simply get caught in your 'birthday suit' and do give utmost importance to your much valuable dignity.
When women become victims
There is no doubt that female social media users hardly fall into this kind of trap set by male social media users. This reflects that our women are more careful in their social media affairs and more concerned about their dignity. Well and good.
In spite of this, women social media users do become victims after relationships with their husbands or lovers turn sour. These poor women allow their former boyfriends or even husbands to do video recordings or take pictures of their private moments when they were in good terms.
After breaking up, the men use these video recordings to threaten their ex-girlfriends or ex-wives either to demand money or sexual favours. So, women, by all means, have to stop their men from taking pictures or video recordings during intimate moments.
For me, intimacy and sexuality should reflect love and trust between the two souls of a man and woman. It should not be abused to earn money or sexual favours via blackmail. Its purpose is to prolong humanity's existence in this blessed world. Therefore, learn to appreciate and do not abuse it.
MOHAMAD FAROUK ESHAK is Ampang Jaya District police chief, with 23 years of experience in the force.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
