In a smear campaign targeting lawmakers in Malaysia, over 10 ruling MPs received e-mails threatening them to pay US$100,000 payments to avoid the release of their “sex videos”. Authorities said the e-mail were also similarly worded and contained an AI video showing a man who shared their physical features.
According to communications minister Fahmi Fadzil, the MPs received similar emails over the weekend, along with a QR code. If they didn’t pay up, the clips would be released to the public, according to the South China Morning Post.
Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil took to X to put up a post: “The government has taken note of reports regarding several elected representatives receiving emails containing threatening elements, accompanied by screenshots of fake videos based on artificial intelligence (“AI”). The emails threaten to disseminate the aforementioned fake videos if the recipients do not make a payment of USD100,000. The review findings indicate that the emails in question use nearly identical wording, accompanied by similar screenshots, and are believed to have been sent from the same email address,” he said, adding that “I have also received a similar e-mail”.
Kerajaan mengambil maklum laporan mengenai beberapa wakil rakyat menerima emel berunsur ugutan yang disertakan dengan tangkap layar (“screenshot”) video palsu berasaskan kecerdasan buatan (“AI”).
— Fahmi Fadzil 🇲🇾 (@fahmi_fadzil) September 14, 2025
Emel tersebut mengugut untuk menyebarkan video palsu berkenaan sekiranya penerima… pic.twitter.com/cu5lCafZlO
He then warned that the government viewed this incident seriously and had directed the Malaysian officials to detect and track the criminals who sent the threatening emails .
Almost all of the MPs belong to the ruling coalition, according to reports.
The report added that sex videos have been a common smear tactic in Malaysia’s politics, to the point that they overshadow serious issues. In 2019, a prominent politician and then Cabinet minister, Azmin Ali, was embroiled in a scandal. A video showing him intimately involved with another younger male politician went viral in the country. Political analysts had fought against the practice, citing it as a troubling effect on politics. They believe it reflected the lack of a mature and healthy political culture in the country.
