Penang cops bust Macau scam ring, solve 200 cases

GEORGE TOWN: Penang police struck a major blow to Macau scam syndicates with the arrest of three people on Tuesday, following a report lodged by a victim on July 31.

With the arrests, police believed they had solved more than 200 Macau scam cases, involving some RM4.5 million.

State police chief Datuk Seri A. Thaiveegan said syndicate members had impersonated police, Customs and bank officers to dupe victims.

He said in the latest incident in June, a 58-year-old senior university lecturer lost more than RM300,000 after receiving a call from a woman claiming to be from the Customs Department in Alor Star.

“The suspect told the victim that he was involved in money laundering and the smuggling of cell phones. The call was then passed to a man, who identified himself as ‘police sergeant Nor Zam Ibrahim’, who claimed to be from the Kedah police contingent.

“He asked the victim whether he wanted to be remanded or to await a court order.

“The suspect asked the victim to transfer money into a CIMB Bank account, ‘prepared by the security unit of Bank Negara Malaysia’, pending the completion of an investigation.

“The victim transferred RM300,000 into a CIMB Bank account,” Thaiveegan said.

He said on June 28, the victim received another phone call from the same “police sergeant”, saying that an investigation would not favour him and to appeal, he needed to deposit RM10,000 into another CIMB Bank account.

“The victim was told not to tell anyone about the matter as the sergeant would resolve the matter quickly. The victim realised he was duped when he failed to contact the sergeant.”

Thaiveegan said investigations led to the arrest of the owner of the CIMB Bank accounts in Taman Casa Idaman in Bukit Mertajam.

Further investigations, he said, led police to the arrest of another suspect in Taman Penaga.

Thaiveegan said the second suspect led police to the 21-yearold man’s house in Lorong Semilang, Seberang Jaya.

“Interrogation of the male suspect showed that he had travelled abroad three times, once to Japan and twice to the United Arab Emirates.

“He admitted he worked with the Macau scam syndicate with his friends, from November last year to May this year. He also admitted to impersonating a police officer, a Customs officer and a bank officer to dupe their victims.”

He said all three were remanded between Wednesday and Saturday for investigation.