Detained: Foreigners who were arrested by the Immigration Department following raids in Kuchai Lama.
KUALA LUMPUR: Forty-six foreigners were detained following raids on 17 scam call centres in Kuchai Lama.
Immigration director-general Datuk Zakaria Shaaban said the raids were conducted at upscale condominiums, where the centres were located, at around 11.30am on Wednesday.
“Those detained were 14 male Chinese nationals, 15 men and four women from Indonesia, a man and two women from Myanmar, two Bangladeshi men, two women from Laos and six Thai women.
“Those detained are aged between 23 and 54,” he said.
Various items were seized including four laptops, 88 mobile phones, 26 SIM cards and RM100,000 cash, he said.
“We carried out intelligence for three weeks before raiding the residential units.
“The scammers were renting the units,” he added.
Zakaria said the scammers would dupe victims by “selling” stock shares, gold and property online.
“They used social media and chat applications such as Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp and Telegram to lure victims.
“They not only targeted locals but also foreigners from their respective home countries.
“We believe they also operated bogus online gambling,” he said.
Zakaria added that the suspects would send offers for the items directly to the victims’ mobile phones at random.
“When the victims show interest, they were required to transfer funds to an account given by the syndicate.
“The victims realised they had been duped when the seller could not be reached after the money was transferred,” he said.
“Each syndicate member is paid between RM2,500 and RM3,500 monthly.”
He also reminded the public not to harbour undocumented foreigners as it is a serious offence.
