Quote of the Day: Don't get Involved in "Sextortion"

The number of cases of Hong Kong men threatened with blackmail after having online sex chats with women has increased significantly this year compared to last year.

Police figures show 506 local reports of "sextortion" in the first six months of this year, more than eight times the reported 60 cases in 2012; there were 477 cases in 2013, and last year 638.

Could it also be that more men are willing to come forward about their extracurricular activities because they don't have the money to pay up?

The amount victims also paid went up as well, according to police statistics. In the first six months of this year HK$1.6 million was paid out, compared to HK$100,000 in 2012. Meanwhile HK$1.7 million was swindled in 2013, and HK$2.3 million last year.

Yesterday three cases were reported by men ranging in ages 20 to 61, and none of them paid the amounts demanded of them, though they were threatened with lurid photos or videos of them would be released online. Interestingly they all reported the incidents in the morning until around lunchtime.

The police are treating these cases as blackmail, and one veteran police officer said such online scams were carried out by Asian women who demanded the money be paid into Western Union accounts registered in the women's home countries, like the Philippines.

Word of advice from the police? "Do not take your clothes off and perform indecent acts in front of a webcam."

It makes sense, but the sage words maybe harder to remember for those who get caught up in the heat of the moment...

Corruption Begets Salacious Tale

The party's over for Ding Qingping who was extradited back to China

A trickle of Chinese fugitives are being repatriated back to the motherland as part of Operation Skynet, part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's crackdown on corruption.

This tale you're about to read reeks of gobs of money, sex and blackmail.

Ding Qingping started out as a small contractor, but became a big player in the property sector after starting Zhonggang Group in 2003. The company developed real estate projects in several cities in Zhejiang, including Hangzhou, Ningbo, Yiwu and Jinhua.

In order to raise money for a project in Jinhua, Ding secured bank loans worth as much as 200 million yuan and took another 90 million yuan from individual borrowers, according to the Qianjiang Evening News.

However, Ding was not able to pay the high interest.

On September 28, 2008, he sent all his employees on a holiday in Hainan province, took the company's money and boarded a flight from Shanghai to Canada with his wife, leaving behind his huge debts and an unfinished high-rise in Zhejiang province.

In Canada he obtained residency through an immigration investment scheme. But then he ran out of money and then got vindictive.

He began contacting his mistresses -- note more than one -- back in China, asking to meet him in hotels in Hong Kong and elsewhere, where he secretly taped their sexual encounters and the blackmailed them for money, the report said.

In 2011, mainland police issued a red notice to Interpol requesting member countries to locate and arrest Ding.

He was finally caught in Spain in December, and then earlier this month, a Spanish court agreed to the Chinese authorities' extradition request and was just sent back to China recently.

Jackie Collins (left) would have loved this tale, right?

While it's game over for Ding, we have to admit extorting money from his several mistresses is surely creative. One wonders what his wife thought of his scheme.

In light of this incident, we mourn the passing of Jackie Collins, who made a name for herself writing titillating tales of sex, money and power.

Surely she would have found stories like this perfect for novel fodder... and they're apparently real!