Man in Malaysia Fakes Own Kidnapping for Gambling Money

Posted: October 3, 2010

Updated: October 4, 2017

Just when you think there’s nothing new under the sun, somebody surprises you with a fresh spin on human thinking. A prime example

Just when you think there’s nothing new under the sun, somebody surprises you with a fresh spin on human thinking. A prime example of fresh ingenuity was shown by a Malaysian man this week; unfortunately, his cleverness got him arrested just as he was starting to have a good time.

Though the crime of extortion has probably existed as long as society itself – or at least as long as material wealth has been relevant to human interaction – rarely has one attempted to extort his own money out of his wife via text messaging. That’s the scenario employed by a 37-year-old man in Kuala Lumpur.

Last Friday, the man began sending text messages to his wife, frantically explaining that loan sharks had kidnapped him and were threatening him bodily harm or worse unless he paid up on a 25,000-ringgit (about $8,100) debt. The man instructed his wife to put the cash into his bank account.

Unfortunately, the plan backfired when the wife panicked at the thought of her loving husband being coerced by bad guys – and so she went directly to the police rather than the bank.

As the man continued sending surely more hysterical-sounding text messages to his wife’s phone through Sunday, police were eventually able to track his calls. As a local police chief said, “When we found him, the man was busy placing bets in [a casino near Kuala Lampur]. We intend to have the man charged with extortion.”

The perpetrator probably should have just stayed home and played in a Malaysian internet casino; how would anyone have found out then?