KUALA LUMPUR: A Macau scam syndicate targeting victims from India was crippled following the arrest of 22 suspects, says Comm Datuk Rusdi Mohd Isa.
The Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director said this came after a police raid at about 7pm on April 23 at a bungalow in the city believed to have been used by the syndicate as a call centre.
“The syndicate would pose as Indian police officers, claiming that victims were under investigation for sedition against the Indian government.
“They would even video call their victims while wearing replicas of Indian police uniforms. The scammers would then dupe the victims into paying investigation fees,” he told a press conference yesterday.
Comm Rusdi said those detained included 12 men and one woman from Pakistan, four men and two women from India, two Taiwanese men and a local man.
“We also seized 49 mobile phones, three laptops, an iPad, and 12 copies of scripts used to dupe victims,” he said.
Further investigations would be carried out to uncover the full extent of the syndicate.
In a separate case, 13 individuals were detained for their involvement in a love scam syndicate targeting victims in the United States, said Comm Rusdi.
“We detained five men and two women from China, two women from Myanmar, a Vietnamese woman, and three locals following a raid on April 24,” he said, adding that the syndicate is believed to have been operating since early April.
On another matter, Comm Rusdi said commercial crime had spiked by 12.89% in the first three months of this year compared to the same period last year.
He said 57,260 cases were reported last year during the same period, while cases increased to 64,643 this year.
However, he said the losses had slightly reduced from RM787mil last year to RM764mil.
“We also recorded an increase in prosecutions from 4,525 cases last year to 5,140 cases this year,” he added.
He said a total of 7,084 people were detained last year, while 7,190 people had been detained as of March 31.
Online scams recorded the highest amount of losses, he noted.
He said 16,680 cases were recorded with RM555.78mil in losses for the first quarter of this year.
“Investment scams have the highest amount of losses with RM246.7mil,” he said.
