Internet love comes with high price

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: Women are laying traps for men seeking love on the Internet.

After luring them from the Net to hotel rooms, the women's boyfriends or husbands will appear and accuse the victims of having affairs with their partners, before extorting money from them.

MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong said that three men, in their 20s, came to seek his help last year after being cheated in such a way.

"The victims had all agreed for 'trysts' with the women they had befriended in chatrooms and Networking sites, before being confronted by men claiming to be the women's husbands or boyfriends.

"The 'cheated' men then beat up the victims and seize their valuables, before extorting them for money," he said, adding that the women played along as if they were caught unawares when the fact was they had set the trap.

In one of the cases, the culprit demanded RM50,000 from the victim but after Chong's intervention, the latter got away by paying only a small sum.
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