Cops nab trio over illegal money lending

PETALING JAYA: Police have arrested three men believed to be involved in illegal money lending activities.

Petaling Jaya OCPD Asst Comm Mohamad Fakhrudin Abdul Hamid said a 32-year-old woman had alerted the police after following up on a money lending advertisement on Facebook at around noon on June 23.

He said that the complainant had contacted the number listed in the advertisement to ask about borrowing money.

"The complainant also sent a copy of her identification documents, payslip and financial statements to that number," he added in a statement on Tuesday (Aug 23).

ACP Mohamad Fakhrudin said the woman realised about one hour later that RM8,000 had been transferred to her bank account.

"The suspect then demanded that she pay back RM10,000 within three days.

"The complainant, who had never actually made a decision to borrow the money, transferred the RM8,000 back to the suspect," he said, adding that the suspect then got angry that the RM2,000 remainder was not transfered and sent threatening notices to the complainant's house and office.

ACP Mohamad Fakhrudin said police arrested three men in Klang on Monday (Aug 22).

"The three men, aged in their 30s and 50s, confessed to working in customer service for between three months and two years,” he said.

ACP Mohamad Fakhrudin then added that their roles were to harrass lenders if they failed to make payments.

"The three have prior records for a number of 'ah long' cases," he said, adding that they have been remanded for four days to assist further investigations.

ACP Mohamad Fakhrudin advised the public against borrowing money from illegal money lenders or ah long syndicates.