Jail for woman who extorted money from man after sexual text exchange

A student-care teacher at a tuition centre exchanged sexual text messages with a man she met on an online dating platform, but then proceeded to extort $700 from him.

- Shaffiq Alkhatib

Savanna Goh told the victim, a 23-year-old full-time national serviceman (NSF), that her uncle was working for the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and that she would alert him about the "uncomfortable" messages she had received if the NSF failed to hand her the amount.

The victim, identified in court documents as V1, complied out of fear. However, this "uncle" did not exist.

The 24-year-old Singaporean woman was sentenced to two years and six months' jail on Aug 14 after she pleaded guilty to one count each of extortion, cheating and misusing a computer system.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Sean Teh said: "During investigations, the accused admitted that she came up with the idea to extort and cheat money from V1 on her own as she found him to be an easy target that would succumb to her threats easily."

The prosecutor told the court that V1 got to know Goh in April 2023, and she claimed to be a preschool teacher.

The pair later communicated via text messages and phone calls.

During these conversations, they talked about sexual topics and flirted with each other.