Police have arrested a man on suspicion of fraudulently obtaining intimate pictures of more than 100 people, including girls as young as 10 years old.
The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), who is in his 40s, allegedly posed as a modeling agent on social media to solicit photographs and videos from girls and women, Tainan police said on Friday.
He was arrested in Taipei in August, the Tainan City Police Department’s 5th Precinct said.
Photo courtesy of the Tainan City Police Department
Officers seized computer hard drives at Chang’s residence that contained videos of more than 100 girls and women aged 10 to 70, the precinct said.
The case first came to light in March, when one of the women in Tainan reported the matter to local authorities.
Chang used fake profiles on Facebook, Instagram and Azar to pose as a modeling agent, looking for women interested in modeling, police said.
He used a voice modulator to sound like a woman during interviews, which were carried out virtually without him showing his face, they added.
Chang told the women that the video interviews had to be conducted in the nude, on the pretext that it would make it easier to create model comp cards.
He also promised the women an hourly wage of NT$2,500 to NT$3,500 if they were chosen by the modeling agency, police said.
Chang secretly recorded the video interviews and later allegedly used the footage to blackmail the models into sending intimate images of themselves to him, saying otherwise he would post naked photos of them online, police said.
There is no evidence Chang sold or distributed the images online, they added.
His actions, which occurred over five years, were apparently for self-gratification, police said.
Police urged other women to come forward, as only a few of the more than 100 identified have so far filed reports, assuring them their identities would remain confidential.
Chang is being investigated for fraud, infringement of privacy, child and youth sexual exploitation, coercion and intimidation, police said.
Tainan prosecutors have obtained a court order to detain the suspect while the investigation is ongoing, they added.
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