Foreign students here involved in scams

> 18 Nigerians among 21 held over RM18,400 oil-drilling ‘investment’

KUALA LUMPUR: Foreign college students here are apparently jumping on the con game by cheating Malaysians of thousands of ringgit.

In the latest case discovered by police, a nurse was cheated of RM18,400 in a con business proposal.

Cheras police chief ACP Chong Kok Sin said the 50-yearold victim made a report last Dec 12, following which the Cheras police commercial crime department swung into action and arrested 21 people, including 18 Nigerians.

The suspects arrested are aged between 25 and 30 and most of them are college students.

Revealing details of the case, Chong said the victim met a man through Facebook in June last year where the man offered the nurse an opportunity to invest in an oil-drilling project in Miri, Sarawak by depositing her investment into two bank accounts.

“The victim banked in the cash in stages (seven transactions) into the accounts before realising that she had been cheated. The overall loss was estimated at about RM18,400,” he said.

Chong said police had a breakthrough in June when they managed to trace the whereabouts of a local man who owned one of the accounts.

He was nabbed in Port Klang on June 6.

Investigators believe the suspect had allowed his bank account to be used by the syndicate for their con activities.

On Oct 20, police made another breakthrough when they nabbed the owner of the second bank account, a local female. Investigations showed that the account owner was married to a Nigerian national.

Police also nabbed the husband.

Both were suspected to be a part of the con syndicate.

“Following the couple’s arrest, police raided a house in Taman Bukit Desa in Kepong on the same day. Two days later, police raided three more houses at Bandar Sri Damansara in Petaling Jaya.

“These raids saw 19 more suspects nabbed, including 17 Nigerian men and a Nigerian and a Thai woman,” he said.