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A 20-year-old Singaporean youth has pleaded guilty to charges of extortion and cheating after using artificial intelligence and social media short videos to orchestrate a complex "honey trap" blackmail scheme
The court heard that the accused, Koh Anthony Jae Duran, devised the scam in October 2025 after a female friend informed him that a 21-year-old man, Lai Yuhang, was persistently attempting to flirt with her online, according to Lianhe Zaobao.
Taking inspiration from short video content online, Koh planned to trick Lai into a fake online romance. With his friend acting as a broker, Koh adopted a fake online persona of a 14-year-old girl and initiated flirtatious exchanges with the victim.
While the female accomplice believed the trap was designed purely to expose and humiliate Lai for targeting younger girls, Koh secretly intended to extort him
To refine his scheme, Koh consulted the AI chatbot ChatGPT to research legal precedents regarding individuals who had previously extorted money from alleged paedophiles.
The pair arranged to meet Lai at Stevens MRT station on the evening of 21 October 2025 under the pretext of a dinner date followed by a physical encounter. When Lai arrived, Koh confronted him by claiming to be the young girl's older brother.
Koh forced Lai to pull out a condom from his backpack, which Lai had earlier mentioned in messages, and filmed the incident while taking a photograph of Lai's identity card. He then threatened to report the matter to railway staff and call the police unless Lai complied.
Feeling threatened by Koh's aggressive posture, Lai agreed to move the conversation to a quieter location in the Toa Payoh area near a local police centre
During the confrontation, Koh repeatedly threatened to hand Lai over to law enforcement officers, causing the frightened victim to break down in tears and beg for mercy. Exploiting Lai's fear of public disgrace, Koh demanded SGD20,000 (RM66,200) in "hush money", offering a five-year instalment plan of SGD300 (RM993) per month.
Terrified by the threats, Lai paid an initial SGD100 (RM331) at 4.10am the following morning but made no further payments. Driven by guilt after reflecting on his actions, Koh refunded the money the next day and sent a text message apologising to Lai's mother.
Unbeknownst to Koh, Lai had already lodged a report with the police, leading to Koh's arrest shortly afterwards.
During mitigation on 6 August, Koh's defence lawyer urged the court to consider his client's early guilty plea, active cooperation with investigators, and genuine remorse shown by returning the money before police intervention
The judge ordered reports to assess Koh's suitability for probation or reformative training ahead of sentencing.
