I was so angry when I saw picture

By Pearly Tan-The New Paper | Thu, Dec 01, 2011
She knew the dangers of posting her pictures on Facebook and took the necessary precautions.

But her picture ended up being used by someone to advertise for sexual services.

Last Tuesday, the 16-year-old, who wanted to be known only as Winnie, contacted The New Paper after reading our report on an ad scam.

She said that her mother had shown her the article after a picture of her wearing a Minnie Mouse headpiece hit the front page.

Winnie, who works as an administrator, said: "My mother had seen the picture before, and she recognised it was me at once.

"She was shopping for groceries at the supermarket and immediately bought a copy (of the newspaper) to show me."

The New Paper reported on Nov 22 that an extortion scam had been making its rounds on the Internet.

Two girls offering sex services would claim to be 18.

But in later SMS exchanges they would claim to be 15.

When a person still wanted to go ahead, they would be contacted by an "angry father" and later by a "policeman" who would suggest they pay the "father" off to avoid being charged with sexual grooming.

The "father", the "policeman" and the girls all appear to be bogus.

The New Paper exposed the scam in a sting operation.

When Winnie read about TNP's sting operation and how the scam worked, she was horrified.

The picture of her used in the ads was the same as that in her Facebook profile.

"Sometime in October, my friend came across the advertisement. When he saw my picture, which he had seen on my Facebook profile, he told me and I went to take a look too," said Winnie.

"I was so angry when I saw my picture being used. I tried calling the number but no one picked up."

No response

Winnie said she then sent an SMS to the number with the words: "Who are you? Why are you using my picture? Can you please call me?"

But she did not get a reply.

Nervous about the situation, Winnie informed her mother.

However, her mother felt that the advertisement was just a prank and advised her to ignore it.

Winnie said: "My mum told me it was probably some children fooling around, so I just left it alone.

"I didn't know they were using my picture on so many websites and were still continuing to do it even after I tried contacting them."

Winnie has since made a police report about the misuse of her picture and says she has no suspect in mind.

She said: "I don't know if any of my friends used my picture on their blog.

"When I asked my friend to try and find out if there were other advertisements, he found a few more.

"But I never thought that my picture was all over the Internet."

The police confirmed that a report has been made and are looking into the matter.

Winnie has since closed her Facebook account and no longer posts her pictures online.

Some of the advertisements in which her picture appeared have up to four photographs.

However, she said that those other pictures were not of her.

No other girls have come forward.

Lawyer Foo Cheow Ming of KhattarWong said the best Winnie could do would be to file a complaint with the websites involved.

He said: "As the websites such as Facebook are based abroad, legal action taken against them will have to be in the country of their headquarters where there is appropriate legal expertise.

"For aggrieved individuals, the best alternative would be to go through the grievance channel of the websites."

He added that the use of Winnie's pictures without permission to imply that she offered sexual services was libellous and defamatory.

"But tracking down who used her photo from her profile will be difficult.

"Even if Facebook divulges the user who had taken her photo, the person who registered the profile may not be real."

This article was first published in The New Paper.


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