16-year-old pretended to be woman to get another teen to perform lewd acts, and extorted him

SINGAPORE – A 16-year-old boy used a fake Instagram account and tricked another teenager into performing a series of lewd acts, which the offender recorded and later used to extort his victim.

The now 18-year-old offender, who cannot be named due to a gag order, pleaded guilty to one count of cheating and one count of extortion on Oct 23.

Another charge for cheating and distributing intimate images and recordings were taken into consideration for sentencing.

In February 2023, the teenager contacted the victim via Instagram with a fake account under the name “Bella”.

He chose the name to give the impression that the account user was female.

To pull it off, the youth downloaded inappropriate photos of girls off the internet – which did not include facial features – and sent them to the victim.

“This was to give the victim the impression that the photos were of ‘Bella’. The accused also had regular conversations with the victim about sexual fantasies, and misled the victim into believing they were in a romantic relationship,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor Stephen Yeo.

In subsequent video calls between the two, the victim would show his face but the offender did not turn on his camera. The victim was asked to perform lewd acts and show his private parts.

The video calls were recorded by the young offender, who sent them to a friend of his, identified in court documents as “W1”.

Between February and December 2023, the teen boy tricked his victim into performing various lewd acts.

On one occasion, he was forced to eat butter and cheese from his fridge despite saying he could no longer swallow more food.

He was also asked to send “Bella” iTunes gift cards and cash worth $390.

In July 2023, the youth decided to extort the victim of money by threatening to circulate the intimate videos he had recorded.

Using the account of “Bella”, he told the victim to pay him a sum of money and threatened to disseminate the videos if his instructions were not followed.

The victim complied and gave money to the teen offender by hiding cash in a book at the Popular bookshop in Tampines Mall.

W1, who knew that the victim was being threatened and acting out of fear, went into an agreement to extort money from the victim.

When the young offender collected the $100 that was placed inside the book, W1 received $20 as a share of the profits.

The teenager extorted $2,450 from the victim using the same modus operandi five times between July and December 2023.

On June 8, 2024, the victim lodged a police report, saying he had been extorted.

The youth was arrested on June 10, 2024, and was released on bail on the same day just before midnight.

On Oct 23, a probation and reformative training report was called for the young offender, who was remanded.

He will be sentenced on Jan 12.

For cheating, an offender can be jailed for up to three years, fined, or both.

For extortion, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.