A beauty queen-model testified before the Regional Trial Court Branch 76 in Naga City, Cebu, on Friday over an alleged online extortion scheme involving her private videos.
Identified by the alias “Julie,” the victim is a student who testified during the first trial of the case against the accused, identified by the alias “Joseph.”
During direct examination, Julie told the court that she was lured by a supposed modeling opportunity sent to her Gmail account.
She said she continued communicating with the person through Viber and, believing she was dealing with a legitimate clothing collaborarion, provided her Apple account credentials.
The accused allegedly used the credentials to access Julie’s private videos and later demanded more than P30,000 in exchange for not selling or publicly distributing the files.
Julie also told the court that she later discovered her intimate videos were being sold online through the Telegram app.
During cross-examination, the defense lawyer questioned Julie on why she did not attempt to make a video call with the person she was communicating with on Viber to verify his identity.
Julie was also asked how she established that the accused was the same person she communicated with on Viber and to whom she sent payments through Maya.
She said she relied on the investigation conducted by the Regional Anti-Cybercrime Unit (RACU) Region 7, which found that the Maya number used to receive the payments matched the mobile number linked to the accused.
Investigators from RACU Region 7 are expected to testify during the next hearing scheduled in October. They led the investigation that resulted in the arrest of the accused in Manila.
The accused was previously arrested after the RTC Branch 76 issued a warrant for his arrest. He is facing charges of robbery with intimidation under Article 294 of the Revised Penal Code in relation to Republic Act No. 10175, or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.
The court previously recommended bail of P200,000.
RACU 7 chief Police Colonel Christopher N. Luyun earlier said the suspect allegedly used fake modeling opportunities to contact young women, gain their trust and persuade them to provide personal information, including iCloud account details.
Luyun said the suspect allegedly used the information to access victims’ private files before demanding money and threatening to upload or distribute the files.
He reminded the public to be cautious of online offers that appear too good to be true and not to easily believe promises of earning large amounts of money.
“We always say that when something is too good to be true, it probably is. Even if they tell us that we can earn a lot of money, we should not easily believe them,” Luyun said.
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