Teen nabbed for extortion through Facebook

MANILA, Philippines - A high school student was arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in a school in Binondo, Manila Thursday for trying to extort P15,000 from his classmate using the social media website Facebook.

Sources at the NBI’s Technical Investigation Division (TID), which conducted the operation, said the 15-year-old suspect allegedly demanded money in exchange for not posting nude photos of his classmate, another 15-year-old boy, online.

According to the victim, he became chatmates with the suspect, who posed as a girl and used the alias “Yuri Kimberly” on Facebook.

The victim said Yuri asked him to send a nude photograph of himself. When he sent the photo, the victim said Yuri began blackmailing him.

According to the victim, he could not sleep and would often break out in a sweat because Yuri gave him until today to pay up. He then sought the help of NBI.

“The suspect demanded the money be placed in certain portions of the school. Because of this, we had a suspicion that the subject must really be connected to or a student of the school,” NBI-TID chief Palmer Mallari told ABS-CBN.

An NBI surveillance camera documented the suspect collecting the P15,000 from a notebook left by the victim. When the suspect was arrested, he admitted posing as Yuri Kimberly online.

The suspect will be charged with extortion and violation of Republic Act 7610, the anti-child abuse law. He was placed in the custody of his parents until the Manila prosecutor’s office issues a resolution on the case.

The suspect was neither jailed nor turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development since the charges to be filed would be “direct filing” and no inquest proceedings will be conducted, the NBI said.

The NBI advised parents to monitor their children’s online activity to prevent cases of cyber-bullying and extortion.