Turkish girls kidnapped in ‘Big Brother’ internet scam

Reality TV has often been criticised for how it manipulates the aspirations of the sometimes desperate people it attracts. But it has never treated its contestants quite as badly as a 'reality-TV' scam which has just been uncovered in Turkey.

Earlier this summer, nine girls responded to an advert on the internet, thinking they were applying to appear on a reality show called Somebody's Watching You. Hoping for a shot at televisual fame, they ended up effectively kidnapped.

The nine women, one only 15 years old, were lured to a luxury Istanbul villa, complete with a swimming pool. There, they were filmed, but instead of appearing on television in living rooms across the country, the 'producers' of the show used naked pictures of the women to sell on internet porn sites.

When the girls noticed - after a few weeks - that the show contained none of the usual Big Brother-style features - such as carrying out tasks, confiding to the world from a 'diary room' or choosing a housemate to evict - they grew suspicious of the show.

But when they raised their concerns with the men in charge, they were shown their contracts, and told that they would have to pay £20,000 if they wanted to leave before the two months they had signed up for elapsed. It was only after the parents of one of the contestants got in touch with the police that the scam unraveled, and the girls were rescued by a police raid on Wednesday.

So far, one man has been arrested, for kidnap and extortion, and some of the girls have revealed that they were beaten during their stay in the house. ·