19 China nationals held over ‘Macau Scam’

SHAH ALAM: Selangor police swooped down on 19 China nationals for alleged involvement in the infamous ‘Macau Scam’ during a raid at a bungalow in Taman Subang Mewah on Thursday night.

A police team nabbed the 14 men and five women to facilitate investigations into a syndicate which had targeted only China nationals residing in Malaysia.

The suspects aged between 17 and 40 were found to have worked for the syndicate when the police raided the premises about 11.30pm.

Selangor CID chief ACP Wan Rukman Wan Hassan said the syndicate had made Malaysia as its operation centre to swindle China nationals to the tune of RM7 million.

“In the first five months of the year, the state police opened 158 investigation papers on fraud cases linked to the ‘Macau Scam’ in the state.

“In the raid at the bungalow which was believed to have been the syndicate’s headquarters, the police also seized a Honda CRV, several sets of computers, nine pieces of Union Pay cards from various banks, mobile phones, routers and modems,” he told reporters yesterday.

He said initial investigations revealed the syndicate began operations since early last year and it frequently changed its location to avoid detection by the authorities.

Wan Rukman said the modus operandi of syndicate members was to call a potential victim by posing as a bank agent.

“The members would randomly contact the victim by claiming the individual’s bank account had incurred a problem...and to overcome it, the suspect would ask the victim to transfer money to a new account, which unknown to the victim, was provided by the syndicate,” he added.

Wan Rukman said the victim realised he had been cheated when he is unable to access the new account after his money had been transferred. - Bernama