Relating his experience to Michael Chong, head of the MCA Public Services and Complaints Department, Lim said it all started when he received a friend request on social media from an attractive woman named Angel Capistrano.

“It was a random friend request, but I accepted it,” English daily The Star reported Lim as saying. The friend request allegedly was made last Friday.

Capistrano, who claimed to be from the Philippines, began chatting with Lim soon after before things got a little raunchy when she requested a video chat with the student on Saturday.

“She started stripping (on video) and asked me to do the same, so I did,” he said.

However on Sunday, Lim said he received a video link of himself from Capistrano, allegedly in the nude including a demand that he pay her RM1,500 or face the possibility of the video being made public.

“It’s very useless if you try to block me,” The Star reported the woman as saying in an accompanying message to Lim.

“I felt embarrassed and helpless. I didn’t know what to do,” Lim said, adding that he was horrified at receiving such a threat.

On Chong’s advice, Lim lodged a police report of the incident at the Cheras police station on Monday.

“I told him not to pay,” said Chong at a press conference at Wisma MCA yesterday.

“If you pay once, they will keep on demanding and they will never stop,” he said.

Chong said he was also certain the photos Capistrano sent Lim of herself, were that of another woman.

“I’m sure she is a victim too,” he said.

Chong said five complaints of similar scams had come to his attention last year. “I think this is just the tip of the iceberg, there may be more victims who are too ashamed to come forward.”

He advised members of the public to be vigilant when making friends online and to be wary of such scams.

He also said victims of scams should never agree to pay the scammers but report the incident to the authorities instead.