KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: For four years now, a 27-year-old private college student has had to endure continuous harassment from an admirer, a former schoolmate.

The man sends her text messages, calls her and even threatens to pour acid on her face if she refuses to accept him.

The last straw came when the man created an account on a social networking website, using her name, and advertised sexual favours.

The man had copied pictures of Shan (not her real name) from her website account and posted them on a duplicate account, giving her mobile phone number for "customers" to call.

Not knowing what else to do, Shan turned to the MCA Public Services and Complaints Department for help.

At the department yesterday, Shan said she got to know the man when they were both in Form One in a school in Tampin, Negri Sembilan.

They grew close when they were both 20.

Shan said a few years later, the youth confessed his love for her, but she rebuked him. "We were just friends and I didn't have any feelings for him. When I told him that, he began to harass me."

After the duplicate website account was created, Shan changed her mobile phone number several times, but the man somehow managed to get her new numbers and posted them on the website.

Shan said she lodged a police report against the man in December last year.

"The police contacted him and told him to stop what he was doing. He stopped, but only for a couple of months."

Shan lodged another report on Sunday, after receiving several phone calls from men who asked her whether she offered sexual services.

"Now, every time my phone rings, I am afraid to answer it. It is a real torture.

"My college-mates are also making fun of me.

"I can't concentrate on my studies and don't feel like going for classes any more."

Department chief Datuk Michael Chong said he had recorded 19 cases involving sexual harassment of women this year. "Most of these cases involved sexual harassment through various ways. "Technology should improve the quality of human life but it is often abused nowadays," he said.