Syndicates now selling sex via SMS

KUALA LUMPUR - Syndicates have become brazen in marketing sexual services involving schoolgirls in the Klang Valley.

SMSes were sent to solicit "customers" who are interested in secondary school students in areas like Kepong, Cheras and Pudu for a fee of about RM300 (S$122).

MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong and the party's Federal Territory Youth chief Senator Chiew Lian Keng, who received the messages recently, called for a press conference yesterday to warn men against going for such services.

Chong said the SMS, written in Chinese, entices "prospective customers" with offers of services by girls who are in their teens and state the number of sexual encounters they have had.

When he called the number in the SMS, he was told that the service could be arranged.

Chong said the involvement of schoolgirls in vice activities is not new, but the syndicates had recently "advertised" it so openly. While Chong had not approached the police with the issue yet, he expressed concern about the increasing number of reports about schoolgirls being involved in vice activities.

"Not only is prostitution illegal in Malaysia, men who go for such services that involve underage girls would be committing statutory rape," Chong said.

"Furthermore, we do not know whether the SMSes are a scam or part of a tactic to lure people to brothels."

Lawyer P.Y. Leong, who was also present at the press conference, said those who are convicted of rape could face a jail sentence of up to 30 years and mandatory whipping.