COMPETITION in business may be tough, but he didn't expect it to get downright dirty.

A young Singaporean businessman is now caught in the middle of a 'sex' smear campaign that was allegedly orchestrated by a business rival to harm his reputation in the industry.

First, Mr A Lim's girlfriend received anonymous online messages accusing him of hiring prostitutes in Batam.

Then, the 25-year-old repeatedly got calls on his handphone at 2am and heard obscene noises on the other end.

Finally, last week, Mr Lim found a post on an online forum containing a slew of accusations.

It said he offered to take female interns from his company with him on trips to Tokyo, on the condition that they slept with him.

It also accused him of making postings on another forum inviting strangers to join him for group sex.

As if that was not enough, photographs which purported to show him in the company of prostitutes in Batam were also uploaded on the website.

But all the accusations are false, Mr Lim claims.

He is an entrepreneur and a co-owner of a multimedia company, and he asked that his company not be named.

An exasperated Mr Lim told The New Paper on Sunday: 'Someone out there is trying to smear me and harass me.'

For one thing, his company has never had female interns. This was confirmed by a co-owner of his company.

As for the photos, even with his face blurred, the man surrounded by prostitutes does not resemble Mr Lim.

'I've never had a huge belly like that,' he said.

Mr Lim has made two police reports so far, which he showed to us.

The first one was in May, after the 30 to 40 obscene calls he got over three weeks.

The calls stopped after he sent an SMS to the mystery caller, warning of further action.

The second police report was made last Saturday, a day after he found the post on Hardware Zone, an online forum.

POSTS REMOVED

Mr Lim complained about it to the administrators of the forum, who took the posts down two hours after they first surfaced.

For now, even though he is still waiting for police to investigate the matter, Mr Lim thinks he has a rather good idea of who is behind this smear-and-harass campaign.

He suspects that the culprit could be a business rival.

His suspicion, he said, is based on online names used by the person when sending messages and making web postings.

Jealousy is probably the motivation behind the attacks, Mr Lim said. He claimed that his firm was 'doing much better' than its rival.

Is he worried that friends and family members might believe the accusations?

No, he said, because 'people who know me trust me'.

His girlfriend of five years told The New Paper on Sunday over the phone: 'I've never doubted my boyfriend.

DISTURBED

'But I still find the whole thing very disturbing. You can tell this person has been plotting for a very long time now. He wants to ruin my boyfriend's career and reputation.'

Mr Lim and his girlfriend plan to get married next year.

His parents, in their 50s, are starting to get worried.

Mr Lim, who lives with his parents and 21-year-old sister in a four-room flat in Bukit Panjang, said: 'They've thought about moving house, because they were afraid this person might try to harm us.'

For all the distress caused, he is seeking nothing more than an end to the attacks and an apology.

His girlfriend said: 'Ihope this person will stop being a coward. Heshould come out andapologise.'

Elgin Toh, newsroom intern

This article was first published in The New Paper on June 29, 2008.