KUALA LUMPUR: A woman “lost” her 26-year-old nephew for three years after he travelled to Laos for work but he has been conned and currently working as a phone call scammer.
The 48-year-old, who wanted to be known only as Yap, said her nephew had to work over 12 hours per day and an additional two hours if he failed to meet his target.
He would also be beaten if he did not reach his target, she said during a press conference hosted by MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong yesterday.
For him to return, she said, his family had to pay a RM113,000 ransom.
Only 30 out of 114 human trafficking cases due to fake job scams reported to MCA were able to return to Malaysia, said Chong.
He said of the cases, 54 were reportedly trafficked to Cambodia, 29 were in Myanmar and 11 were trafficked to Laos, among others.
A total of 76 police reports have been made by the victim’s families.
He said the traffickers asked for a ransom of RM80,000 to RM100,000 from the victims to be released.
While some victims managed to return to the country after paying the ransom, some are still stuck in other countries and is believed to have paid ransom to other scammers.
Some were able to return after just a few weeks, he said, but one victim had been detained for over three years.
“We all at MCA feel very sad because despite our warnings and efforts along with the police, NGOs and opposition parties to educate the public on seeking jobs overseas, this is still happening.
“They even lied to their families to work there but when they arrived there, they could not get out and had to pay ransom.
“Now they are not only targeting Chinese but also Malays,” Chong said.
Also present at the media conference in Wisma MCA were three other women whose family members fell prey to a fake job agency that has resulted in them being trafficked.
Azlinda, 50, from Johor Baru sent her son off to Dubai for a customer service job after hearing about it from an acquaintance on April 2.
“After three weeks in Dubai, my son told me the company went bankrupt and they were sent to Cambodia.
“While in transit in Singapore, two of his friends managed to run away but he failed.
“He’s working as a scammer with six others. One of them is a Malay girl from Kedah and five others are Chinese,” she said.
She added that she was trying to get in contact with an acquaintance, a local man who offered her 22-year-old son the job but to no avail.
Tiong, 48, said her son lied to her after she disallowed him to accept a job offer in Cambodia.
Her son told her that he would go for a holiday in Taiwan last Wednesday but she believed that he went to Cambodia as she had not heard from him since.
Meanwhile, a 27-year-old woman received a message from her welder husband three days ago to ask for help from the embassy to save him in Cambodia.
The 35-year-old man left the country just two weeks ago.
Chong urged the public whose family members fell victims to the scam to lodge a police report.
“Please lodge a police report if your family members are victims because the police will take action,” Chong said.
