Macau Scam syndicates love playing ‘cops’ the most

SHAH ALAM: Macau scammers in Selangor seem to favour posing as police, Bank Negara and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officials.

Between January and July this year, a total of 334 cases were reported where scammers posed as police personnel and duped victims of RM14.76mil, making this the most popular modus operandi in the state.

In second place, the suspects posed as Bank Negara officials in 100 cases and scammed victims of RM8.16mil.

Posing as MACC officials came in third with seven cases involving losses of RM720,900.

A script sighted by The Star showed just how the scammers work on scaring their victims into coughing up their life savings.

The victim would first receive a recorded message informing him or her about a warning that they were being investigated for money laundering or other suspicious activities and would direct them to the department involved in investigating the matter if they press a button via the phone call.

The “officer” would then inform the victim that they usually only investigate big cases and ask if they have been involved in any large money transactions.

If the victim says they were never involved in such activity, the scammer would then ask for the victims full name and MyKad number to check their system.

The scammer then says that there was a case being investigated and informs them that an account has been frozen involving drugs and money laundering.

If the victim continues to deny involvement, the scammer would read out made-up facts of the case to try to make the victim panic.

They may also resort to lying to the victim that a subpoena has been issued for them to appear in court for trial and that failing to attend may lead to their arrest.

They would then tell the victim that there may have been a mistake and maybe a family member was instead involved and connect them to another suspect posing as a Bukit Aman officer.

The “Bukit Aman” police officer would then tell the victim that there was an arrest warrant and warrant to freeze bank accounts issued.

The suspect will then ask the victim to give them all their banking details in order to check if there was any suspicious activity,

They would then tell the victim to transfer these funds into another bank account (belonging to the syndicate) in order to avoid the funds from being frozen.