GEORGE TOWN: Lightning does, indeed, strike twice.
After losing money to online scammers, the victims were approached again by people promising to recover their losses.
But the offer was another scam.
On Oct 26, four Chinese nationals who claimed they could help victims get their money back were arrested at an apartment in Sungai Nibong here.
Describing it as a scam on top of another scam, Penang police chief Comm Datuk Dennis Lim Kwang Keng said the group operated a call centre here, using social media and digital communication platforms to target people in the United States.
“They offer their services to people who have already been scammed, claiming they can help recover their money. But once the victims contact them, they are scammed a second time,” he told reporters at the Penang police headquarters yesterday.
Comm Lim said police, who are still trying to establish the number of victims, had retrieved and analysed data from computers seized during the raids.
The four men nabbed were among 141 people, aged between 18 and 48, arrested in 14 raids on suspected scam call centres across Penang during a 21-day operation from Oct 9 to 29.
Of those arrested, 93 were Chinese nationals, 29 Vietnamese, nine Malaysians, four Japanese, three Taiwanese, two Cambodians and one Myanmar national.
Comm Lim said police also seized mobile phones, computers, laptops, tablets, Internet routers and other electronic equipment and accessories, with a total estimated value of RM1.44mil.
The suspected scams were allegedly run from condominiums and apartments across Penang, with people in countries like China, Japan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the US and Brazil being targeted.
The alleged operations included love scams, fake investment schemes and cryptocurrency exchange scams run through call centres and digital platforms.
Other tactics included impersonating police officers to scam Japanese nationals and operating online gambling platforms.
Comm Lim said the foreign suspects had entered Malaysia legally, but police were investigating whether they had breached immigration laws by misusing their permitted activities.
“Besides offences under the Penal Code, we are also looking at the Immigration Act so that action can be taken against them.”
All 14 cases, he said, are being investigated under Section 420 read together with Section 120B of the Penal Code, as well as Sections 6(3) and 15(1)(c) of the Immigration Act.
Comm Lim said three cases had been brought to court, while the remaining 11 are still under probe.
