Jail for married man who posed as social escort agent to get free sex
Chen Zelin told one victim she needed more “training” sessions with him, and another woman that she did not perform to his expectations. ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
Andrew Wong
UPDATED
APR 16, 2024, 03:39 PM
SINGAPORE – A man concocted a plan to pose as an agent for social escorts in order to obtain free sex or discounted sexual services from the women who contacted him.
Chen Zelin, 42, told one victim she needed more “training” sessions with him, and another woman that she did not perform to his expectations.
Separately, he also threatened to send naked photographs of his girlfriend to her boss and colleagues in an attempt to sleep with her friends.
On April 16, Chen was sentenced to jail for two years and eight months after pleading guilty to two charges of cheating by personation and a charge of threatening to release intimate images.
He was married at the time of his offences. Court documents did not reveal details of his marriage.
The victims cannot be named due to a gag order imposed by the court.
Deputy Public Prosecutor June Ngian said Chen placed an advertisement sometime in 2020 on online platform Locanto to recruit girls that wanted to earn more money for their escort services.
The first victim came across Chen’s advertisement around October 2020 and contacted him.
He told the woman that he was able to get the girls from his agency up to 10 clients a week from the dark web.
She agreed to give Chen a trial of her services for $60, instead of her usual rate of up to $400 after he told her he had to assess her services first.
They arranged to meet on Oct 14, 2020. After the trial service, he did not contact her for about six months.
On April 4, 2021, he contacted her and said her service had not been to his expectations. He offered her a second trial, which she declined.
Sometime in 2021, the second victim contacted Chen after seeing his advertisement. DPP Ngian said she was working as a social escort to pay off her debts after falling victim to scams.
During their conversation, Chen told her that he needed to see if she has the skills to please his customers.
The woman asked Chen to confirm he was running an agency for social escorts because she was afraid of falling for another scam. He continued to deceive her, and she agreed to not charge him for the session.
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After they had sex on March 22, 2021, he told her she needed to lose weight and her skills were not up to par.
He suggested more “training” sessions with him before she would be ready to meet his customers, and left her to foot the hotel room bill.
Court documents did not mention how these two cases came to light.
The prosecution said Chen had reached out to 31 people, including the two victims, under the guise of a social escort agent.
In July 2021, Chen entered into a relationship with the third victim, who was looking for a place to rent and also for a boyfriend.
DPP Ngian said that during this period, the woman agreed to send Chen intimate photos or videos of herself on his request.
Chen then threatened to show her boss their sex-related conversations if she did not allow him to take intimate photos or videos of her.
The prosecution said Chen knew his girlfriend would feel threatened as she feared her work permit would be cancelled if she was fired.
She gave in to his demands the next morning, with some photos showing her face clearly.
On July 31, 2021, Chen sent these photos to his girlfriend and told her: “You’re sex slave. No rights.”
Two days later, Chen asked her to introduce her colleagues to him for sex. Feeling distressed, the woman made a police report and Chen was arrested on the same day.
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