Sabah cops: No escape for scammers

Hard day’s work: Asst Comm M. Chandra (second from right) and his officers showing the seized stolen items during the press conference in Kota Kinabalu.

KOTA KINABALU: Nigerian scam­­mers have cheated Saba­hans of more than RM3mil over the past five years and police are not about to let them get away with it.

City police chief Asst Comm M. Chandra said the cases involved 86 victims, of whom 80 are women, and were still being investigated.

He said Sabah police were wor­king with Bukit Aman because the suspects were believed to be operating from peninsular Malay­sia.

“The victims are from around Kota Kinabalu and the cases are complicated,” he said, explaining that many of the transactions were done over the Internet.

The culprits used fake accounts and other people’s identities in the scams, he told a press confe­rence here yesterday.

Six Sabahans, who allowed unknown individuals to use their bank accounts for various tran­sactions, have been arrested so far.

Police are investigating why they allowed others to use their bank accounts and Automated Teller Machine cards.

ACP Chandra said the Parcel Scam and Casanova Scam, for example, had been reported numerous times but many people remained gullible.

“The modus operandi is similar. Someone sends a random message to Internet users on the pretence of wanting to make friends and so on, before claiming that they want to send them presents, or make a visit,” he said.

“Accomplices then call the victims at different times claiming to be Customs officials or other authorities asking them to bank in money for taxes or whatever to release the held items or persons in detention,” ACP Chandra said.

In an unrelated incident, two men who wanted to make fast money by selling an expensive camera they claimed to have bought at a very low price, were arrested last month.

The two, both aged 33 and working with a private company, had said they bought the camera set for RM4,000 and wanted to sell it for double that, said ACP Chandra.

But they got into trouble after showing a picture of the set to a potential buyer, who then showed it to a friend who had recently lost such a camera.

The friend recognised the set as the one that was stolen, along with other items, from his home on Aug 17, ACP Chandra said.

Four other men, aged between 30 and 35, were also picked up over the case.

Police believe they are members of a burglary gang called Geng Bongsu.