Waiter tells of job scam ordeal and 'over 1,000 Malaysians' held by syndicate

KUALA LUMPUR: A 20-year-old Melaka waiter never expected that the lucrative job offer dangled in front of him would nearly cost him his life.

His ordeal also saw him confined in a building in Myanmar where he claimed at least a thousand other Malaysians were being held against their will.

The youth, who was identified only as Seah, was among the latest employment scam victims to receive help from MCA's Public Services and Complaints Department.

Seah appeared at a press conference at Wisma MCA here on Wednesday (June 8) in a wheelchair after sustaining head injuries, a broken leg and two broken ribs in a fall.

Seah claimed he was pushed off a third-floor balcony by members of a syndicate after he refused to take part in a love scam.

Relating his experience, Seah said he came across an advertisement on social media in March offering a waiter's job for RM4,000 a month, about RM1,200 more than what he was earning in the same line at the time.

After agreeing to take the job, he was taken by car from Melaka to Kelantan, where he claimed to have been taken through the rat lanes to enter Thailand before going on to Myanmar.

It was at this moment that he realised what he was getting into, he told the media.

Seah, who was held in a four-storey building in Myawaddy, Myanmar, claimed that there were over 1,000 Malaysians there who were also victims of the job scam.

"On each floor there were about 300 people, mostly Malaysians.

“They were beaten as well so I know that they are also victims,” he said.

Seah, who was released after his family and friends paid a RM70,000 ransom, said the syndicate members were Malaysians although he believed that their leader was from China.

Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong said 74 cases were brought to their attention since March but only 23 had been saved.

“Eleven have returned to our country safely, while 12 are currently being held in detention centres in Thailand and Cambodia.

“We have no information on the whereabouts of the others,” he said.