Status updates and other statements placed online also point to a rising awareness that social media is being used by criminals to target and win the trust of potential victims.
What happened to Ye Myat Aung, a resident of Dagon Township, is becoming more common, reports indicate. He allowed a Facebook friend to stay at his home overnight on August 26. He was just doing Paw Lu Lwin a favour, as he would for any other friend, but when he woke up at about 2am he discovered that his Facebook friend had vanished, along with about Ks 3.8 million (almost US$ 4,000) worth of his possessions. This included 14 pieces of gold, diamond jewellery, his watch, his iPhone (including a SIM card), his passport and about Ks 250,000 in cash.
Ye Myat Aung reported the theft to the Dagon Township Police Station and the alleged thief was charged. Three days later he was arrested at his home in Sanchaung Township. Police discovered the suspect had several online identities, as well as a common thread running through them – not one of them mentioned his criminal record.
Police Major Myint Htwe said an awareness campaign is underway at the township and ward levels to prevent social media from being a tool criminals use to gain the trust of victims.
“You cannot trust everyone from online,” he said, summing up the message from police.
In June, a woman was robbed and murdered by man she had met on Viber, after they had had several dates, police records show.
Min Oo, of the Myanmar Computer Professionals Association, questions the link between social media and crime. He says that there is nothing new about criminals befriending victims and that the problem is not social media itself, but the fact that some people are inherently na?ve and gullible – they are too quick to believe what other people tell them.
Min Oo said such crimes would be reduced if those who are inherently trusting learn become more alert. “These crimes are well known on social media,” he said, suggesting that the warning signal has already been sent and that social media who do not heed it are responsible for the consequences.
Cyber crime analysts disagree. They say criminals who use social media to target victims and plan crimes usually target those who lack the maturity to make sound judgements, primarily young girls and children. Social media also offers a new channel of access to victims that can skirt existing social networks for protection, including informal ones, these analysts say.
At 3pm on June 13 police were informed that a decomposing corpse had been found in a bamboo grove in Mingaladon Garden Park. They sent the woman’s body for an autopsy. Further investigations uncovered her identity. Although her name is hidden in police records, the details made public show that she had left home on June 9 with her purse full of cash to buy clothes for her shop. Her online boyfriend offered to tag along. He allegedly robbed and murdered her.
Sources from Mingaladon Police Station say the suspect was arrested in Bogalay Township, Ayeyawaddy Region on July 2.
Besides crime, female users of social media are also reporting a rise in sexual harassment. One 22-year-old Viber user describes the harassment as “disturbing”, but says she is afraid to report the man to police because a complaint might antagonise him further. She said he started with text messages from phone numbers she did not recognise, followed by requests to meet. “When I didn’t reply he sent me pornographic images and messages with offensive and threatening language,” she said.
Finally, she blocked him.
What he did, however, is a crime, advocate Khin Zaw says. The Penal code includes laws to punish those who uses pornography or offensive language to harass or disturb other people – and this includes online harassment, he said.
Pyae Pyae Kyaw, a regular Facebook user, said stories of people being robbed by friends made on the site were commonplace. “I’ve heard stories of some people being cheated out of money by people they’ve met online,” she said. But Pyae Pyae Kyaw agreed with Min Oo that these crimes usually boiled down to too much trust. “We can’t trust people we don’t know well. Girls should be very cautious about their online friends.”
