Nine foreigners detained over Macau scam

KUALA LUMPUR: Police detained nine foreigners and a local man on Monday, believed to be members of the ‘Macau Scam’ syndicate which targets Chinese nationals with a total loss of over RM3 million involved.

Kuala Lumpur police Commercial Crime Investigation Department (JSJK) head, ACP Mohd Luthfi Ismail Abdullah said they were nabbed in a raid about 6pm in Bandar Baru Seri Petaling, here, by a team from the Sentul JSJK.

Speaking to reporters at the Kuala Lumpur contingent police headquarters here today, he said those arrested were aged between 20 and 50 years, including a female Chinese national and a local man.

He said from the investigation, the syndicate was believed to have been operating since April and had made Malaysia the centre of its operations to dupe Chinese nationals.

“Among the items seized in the raid were 52 handphones of various brands, 29 SIM cards, and 176 ATM cards of various banks,” he said.

Mohd Luthfi said each syndicate member received a monthly salary of between RM3,000 and RM5,000 and had entered the country several times since the end of 2015 by using student and social visit passes.

On their modus operandi, he said the suspects would phone victims and pretend to be bank agents or police officers.

“The suspects would contact the victims at random, telling them that there was a problem with their bank accounts. In order to resolve this, the suspects would ask the victims to transfer funds from their account to a new account.

“The victims would only realise they had been tricked when they could not access the account after the fund transfer was completed,” he said.