Macau scam syndicate busted with arrest of 25 foreigners
KUALA LUMPUR: A Macau scam syndicate has been crippled with the arrest of 25 foreigners in an operation at a bungalow in Shah Alam yesterday.
Federal police Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Datuk Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said police worked with their counterparts in Taiwan to bust the syndicate, which targeted mainly Taiwanese.
“We raided a bungalow in Shah Alam, which was used as the syndicate’s operation centre at 3.45pm.
“During the raid, 25 foreigners were detained. They included 20 Chinese and five Taiwanese aged between 20 and 30.”
Acryl said initial investigations revealed that the syndicate would contact victims in Taiwan, pretending to be officers from a telecommunications company there.
The victims were informed that they had outstanding debt with the company and required to settle it immediately by transferring the money into an account.
Police also seized a Toyota Vellfire, passports, the script used and communications devices, including laptops, tablets and phones.
Those detained were handed over to Shah Alam CCID for the next course of action.
On a related matter, Acryl said in the first four months of this year, the CCID had investigated 270 Macau scam cases involving losses of RM9.49 million.
These syndicates, he said, used the same tactic, which was to use Voice Over Internet Protocol to mimic their caller IDs, and pretending to be bank officers, police or telecommunications companies’ personnel to con their victims.