(KRON) — A catfisher who posed as a 15-year-old girl to lure pre-teen boys over social media was sentenced to serve four years in state prison.
A San Mateo County judge ordered Wai Kit Ching, 32, of San Mateo, to immediately report to prison following Wednesday’s sentencing hearing.
Ching was living in San Mateo when he created fake social media profiles posing as a teenage girl, according to prosecutors. Between 2019 and 2020, Ching “enticed five different male victims aged 12-14 to send him videos of them masturbating. His Instagram account and home computer revealed a large amount of child pornography,” prosecutors wrote.
Detectives with the San Mateo Police Department seized Ching’s computers and discovered that several boys had been victimized.
Catfishing is a type of online romance scam in which a person pretends to be someone else using fake photos and personas. “Romance scams occur when a criminal adopts a fake online identity to gain a victim’s affection and trust,” the FBI wrote. “Con artists are present on most dating and social media sites.”
Ching was slated to stand trial in February and he was out of custody on $2.5 million cash bail. In March, he pleaded no contest to two felonies: committing lewd acts with a child, and contacting a minor for the purpose of committing molestation.
Ching was taken into custody Wednesday to begin serving his prison sentence.