Top salesman in scam job escapes syndicate

Compiled by C. ARUNO, FAZLEENA AZIZ and R. ARAVINTHAN

A Sarawak man who fell in love with his online girlfriend in Myanmar ended up being lured into working for a scam syndicate, reported China Press.

The woman, whom Alex, 22, met on Facebook, promised a job at her company and arranged for him to fly to Bangkok before travelling to Myanmar.

However, he failed to board three of his flights after being late on the first, entered the wrong boarding gate on the second, and overslept on the third.

“After missing three flights, I had a premonition that something bad was about to happen.

“It felt as if something was stopping me from leaving.

“But in the end, I managed to fly to Thailand anyway,” he said.

However, Alex’s lover was nowhere to be found when he arrived in Bangkok.

Instead, two men and a woman kidnapped him and trafficked him to KK Park in Myawaddy, Myanmar, which is infamous for online scam syndicates.

Alex was sold to a syndicate specialising in pig-butchering scam which targets Europeans and Americans.

“One of my victims saw some returns and immediately invested US$50,000 (RM215,075) into the syndicate’s account.

“All of a sudden, I became a sales champion overnight,” he said.

Alex was so successful as a scammer that he was able to make in just one day what others struggle to achieve in a month.

Being the top salesperson won Alex privileges such as being allowed to retain his personal phone and the choice of where he would like to work.

Alex hatched a plan to run away with two other victims who were lured into working for the syndicate.

He then asked for the three of them to be transferred to a different workplace and managed to escape once they were let out of KK Park.

Alex managed to make it back to Malaysia after three months in Myanmar and recounted his tale to reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

He has handed evidence of the scam syndicate to the authorities.

>Now that China’s teenage diving queen Quan Hongchan is back at home following her press tour, her house is swarmed by even more tourists who wanted to catch a glimpse of her, reported China Press.

Some even resorted to using drones just to peek into the house at Maihe village in Guangdong in hopes of capturing a photo of the Olympic gold medalist.

The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a, it denotes a separate news item.