Malaysia, China cops cripple scam syndicate, 140 nabbed

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian and Chinese police have crippled a scam syndicate that had caused victims in the two countries to incur about RM13mil in losses.

“We conducted the operations simultaneously on Dec 12 with our counterparts in China and caught a total of 140 suspects in Malaysia and China,” said Bukit Aman Commercial Crimes Investigation Department director Comm Datuk Amar Singh.

He said the scammers would call up victims in Malaysia and China and claim to be from the bank. They would then scare victims into believing that their accounts were part of a criminal investigation.

The anxious victims would follow the scammers' instructions and deposit funds into a bank account, not realising the fraud.

“They would use VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) to call the victims who are mostly Chinese nationals," he said, adding that a few Malaysians were also duped.

Comm Amar said that 65 of the alleged Chinese scammers caught in Malaysia entered the country using tourist visas and are believed to have been operating here for about six months.

“They ran their operations from houses in posh neighbourhoods,” he said at a press conference in Bukit Aman on Tuesday.

The suspects have been remanded until the Dec 26 and will be deported and handed to Chinese authorities.

In their investigations, the team also shut down an online gambling syndicate that has been operating for about two years at the Kuchai Entrepreneurs Park.

Comm Amar said the syndicate would contact interested pundits via social media and add them to a gambling group.

The gamblers would then join a game using their own devices.

“The syndicate could make about RM300,000 a month from their operations,” he said.

The suspects’ remand ends Tuesday but Comm Amar said it could be extended to aid with investigations.