Woman arrested over love-note extortion bid

By Xu Fang  |   2008-12-24  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

A WOMAN was arrested yesterday for allegedly trying to extort 500,000 yuan (US$72,998) from her boss after she saw a love letter on her boss's computer.

Wang Xiaohui is said to have confessed when she was taken to the police station by her boss. She was charged with attempted blackmail by the Minhang District Prosecutors' Office.

Wang, 23, got a job in a paper company in September after she graduated from university. On October 20, her boss, surnamed Qian, asked Wang to retrieve a bill of delivery from Qian's e-mail inbox. There Wang came across a love letter her boss had received, prosecutors said.

Wang registered with QQ, an online chat tool, on October 28 and used the new QQ number to send a message to her own number, prosecutors alleged. The message told Wang to tell Qian to hand over 500,000 yuan on November 10 or the boss's affair would be exposed.

On November 5, Wang showed the message to Qian. Qian, however, said she didn't have a lover and said she wanted to go to the police.

Wang said the extortion bid was an attempt to stop her boss having an affair which, she feared, could destroy Qian's marriage, prosecutors said.