KUALA LUMPUR: An international scam syndicate has been dismantled with the arrests of 14 suspects, including a male Chinese national believed to be the mastermind.
The syndicate was taken down in a coordinated raid on Feb 19, targeting eight condominium units in Persiaran Stonor, which were being used as call centres for their fraudulent operations.
The Commercial Crime Investigation Department's (CCID) Cyber Tactical Unit of the Operation and Intelligence Division spearheaded the operation after months of intelligence gathering, which began in October last year.
Bukit Aman CCID director Comm Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf revealed that, aside from the mastermind, those arrested included financial managers, customer service personnel, and drivers.
"Our investigation found that the syndicate hosted a bogus online gaming competition on the ‘WeGame’ platform.
"They supposedly offered lucrative prizes, including computers and luxury bags from brands such as Louis Vuitton and Balenciaga.
"Syndicate members infiltrated chat rooms and online forums to lure players from China onto their platform," he said at a press conference on Friday (Feb 21).
Once interested players signed up, they were instructed to download an application and pay a fee to participate.
"Victims were then subjected to additional charges to continue playing. However, once all payments were made, the syndicate became unreachable," he added.
Comm Ramli disclosed that syndicate members had entered Malaysia using social visit passes in October last year.
"We believe the mastermind funded the setup of these call centres using proceeds from scam activities in the Philippines.
"He also purchased the eight condominium units, worth RM16mil, using the names of his ex-wife (a Chinese national) and other syndicate members," he said.
Each syndicate member was reportedly paid between RM3,000 and RM7,000 per month for their roles.
During the raid, police seized RM4.89mil in cash, along with foreign currency.
"Various other things worth RM7mil were also seized, including two luxury multi-purpose vehicles, 27 mobile phones, 12 designer handbags, four gold necklaces, 11 access cards and two bank cards.
"All suspects have been remanded. We are investigating the case under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating," said Comm Ramli.
