Four, including a woman, held over loan scam syndicate

KUALA LUMPUR: Police have detained four individuals including a woman believed to be members of a loan scam syndicate which have duped people to a tune of RM266,650 since early this year.

Kuala Lumpur Commercial CID chief ACP Mohd Luthfi Ismail Abdullah said they were nabbed at a condominium in Jalan Jalil Perkasa 1, Bukit Jalil here at 1.15am on Tuesday.

In the raid, police seized RM7,655 in cash, mobile phones, ATM cards, notebooks and a Mercedes Benz, he told a news conference at Kuala Lumpur police headquarters.

According to him, investigations found the syndicate was active since early this year with 35 police reports made involving a loss of RM266,650 against the gang which made the condominium unit its operation centre.

“The syndicate’s modus operandi is to advertise their services via social media such as Facebook with attractive offers including those blacklisted by financial institutions,” he said.

Mohd Luthfi Ismail said all transactions with the syndicate including loan documents were conducted via WhatsApp.

“Individuals who are desperate for loans will call the number on the advertisement and the victim will be told to pay transaction fees to process documents before the loan is approved. The victim would be told to pay 10 per cent of the loan by the syndicate before it is released but the gang would immediately block the number of the victim upon receiving the advance payment from the victim,” he said.

He said all suspects in their 20’s were now remanded to assist investigations under Section 420 of the Penal Code.

He said the syndicate was also found advertising its loan services to via Facebook, WhatsApp, Short Message Service (SMS) as well as newspapers.

Meanwhile Mohd Luthfi Ismail said loan scam cases were increasing when 137 cases were recorded in the first six months of this year with losses amounting to RM1.3 million compared to 31 cases with losses of RM694,000 during the same period last year.

“I would like to remind the people not to be easily tricked and to report to police if they come across any suspicious offers,” he said. — Bernama