A young single mother who became rich by luring men into s*x online then turning around to blackmail them for money has been arrested.
Maria Cecilia Caparas-Regalachuelo
The woman who is the mastermind behind a global internet sex scam that caused the suicide of a British teenager is a rich former slum dweller from the Philippines known as the Queen of Sextortion,
reports Dailymail.
The woman has been identified as single mother Maria Cecilia Caparas-Regalachuelo – who just 10 years ago lived in one of Manila's worst areas – is the alleged matriarch of a syndicate in the northern Philippines that has blackmailed thousands of foreigners after taking n*ked videos of them during online sex chats.
According to reports, it was revealed that the woman used a Fagin's band of urchins including girls as young as 12, Caparas is believed to have amassed a fortune by getting her gang members to threaten to post naked footage of victims on Facebook after persuading them to strip.
The woman has been blamed for the suicide of 17-year-old Daniel Perry from Dumfermline in Scotland. The trainee mechanic thought he was chatting online to a girl in the US and was told by his online tormentors he would be 'better off dead' as they demanded money shortly before he leapt to his death from the Forth Road Bridge in 2013.
Caparas, 37, was arrested with dozens of other gang members in a 2014 Interpol swoop following Daniel's death.
She is suspected to have used her wealth and connections to bribe her way out of prison and continue her sextortion racket before being arrested again in September last year.
She is now in custody awaiting trial for child abuse and trafficking.