3 S'porean politicians make police report after receiving letters with ‘distasteful’ photos, extortion threats

Three Singaporean politicians have made police reports after they received letters with manipulated photos, accompanied by extortion demands.

Vivian Balakrishnan, Tan Wu Meng and Edward Chia put up social media posts on Apr. 20 addressing the issue.

Vivian, who is the Foreign Minister, wrote: “In this age of deep fakes and scams, we must take a strong collective stand against such conduct.”

He also described these acts as “deplorable”, and “totally contrary to the value and good practices that we are trying to inculcate in our society”.Chia, a Member of Parliament (MP) for Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, wrote that a “distasteful photo” sent to him showed his face digitally manipulated onto a figure.He added that the increasing popularity of deepfakes makes it harder to discern reality from fiction, even though it is not uncommon for public figures to face extortion scams.

He wrote: “With readily available tools, anyone can create deepfake content within minutes.” .

Tan, an MP for Jurong GRC, said a number of MPs received letters with fake photos and threats and that the police are investigating.Tan said in a video addressing the issue that he did not want to speculate on who and where the perpetrators are located.

He also did not want to delve into why such acts are happening now at a “very important time in Singapore’s history”.

More than 70 people here received letters of extortion containing manipulated photographs showing them in lewd poses in March and April 2024, it was previously reported.

Top photo via Unsplash