ONLINE scammers, better known as Macau scam syndicates, rely on four tried-and-tested methods to dupe their victims, said a top police officer in charge of cybercrimes.

Bukit Aman CCID (cybercrimes and multimedia investigation) deputy director Victor Sanjos said the tricksters rely on causing fear in their victims by pretending to be someone in authority or to help solve a criminal act.

“The methods used are lucky draws, impersonating a police officer or a government servant, impersonating Bank Negara officers and lastly, by asking for ransom money in kidnapping cases,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

The syndicates would use “spoofing” techniques by using a platform known as voice over internet protocol (VoIP) to allow them to use any phone number to trick the victims.

“In lucky draw cases, the caller will inform the victim he has won millions of dollars from Hong Kong and they will give the victim a number to call if they want to redeem the prize.

“The victim will then be asked to pay tax and insurance by transferring money to a certain bank account and once the money is transferred, you will never hear from them again.”

On the second method, Victor said the scammers will impersonate a police officer and accuse the victim of having violated the law.

“The victims are told to transfer their money to another account in case their account is frozen during investigations.

“This technique is the same one used by bogus bank officers. But they will say that the victim had used credit cards and had outstanding amounts with banks.”

Victor said some syndicates would use ransom or kidnapping to extort money.

“The syndicate will call a potential victim and claim that their relative or family member has been kidnapped.

“To secure their release, the victim will have to bank in money to a third-party account. In some cases, they will also use other reasons, such as hit-and-run claims.”

Victor said the name “Macau scam” was associated with this form of cheating as it originated from Taiwan and China.

Macau scams have been in the news regularly.

Last month, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) remanded some prominent personalities for allegedly being involved in such syndicates, but they were released at the end of their remand period.

Following that, police took over the case and have so far arrested and remanded 20 people, including a mastermind and eight police officers.

However, no one has been brought to court yet.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is expected to answer questions on the action taken against such scammers in Parliament today following a question filed by Khoo Poay Tiong (PH-Kota Melaka).

Drama of escaped suspect

The alleged mastermind of the syndicate here caused a huge outcry after he escaped from the police by scaling a wall after his release from the MACC.

Goh Leong Yeong, however, was rearrested in a special operation 15 days later. He is now being investigated for money-laundering and operating an online gambling racket.

MACC chief Azam Baki said the agency has arrested 20 people, including eight police officers and a Chinese national.

MACC also froze more than 730 bank accounts with RM101 million and seized RM5 million.

The authorities also seized 23 luxury vehicles and motorcycles bought with the proceeds from the operation.

At the time of Goh’s escape, MACC was preparing to hand over three men – another key suspect, Addy Kanna, and two police officers – to the police to assist with their investigation into a series of online gambling and Macau scam cases.

“Goh ran the Macau scam and gambling operations from high-end residences in the country. His targets were usually foreign players.

“There are also four individuals who are the operator’s right-hand men. The four helped the main suspect invest money in a business run by some of the country’s celebrities,” sources close to the investigation said.

“Investigating officers are still gathering information from all suspects and will call other witnesses, including certain celebrities.”

All the suspects have been remanded until tomorrow.

Cleaning dirty money

According to sources close to the investigation, the syndicate used various means to launder money to keep the authorities at bay.

“There are three phases to clean the money, first is where the money is placed, then the money is coated and followed by integration.

“In the first phase, the illegal money will be invested in a genuine financial system. The syndicates will use a wide network with several different names and accounts to carry out transactions so that they cannot be traced by the authorities,” one source told The Malaysian Insight.

“The second phase involves complex money transactions where the illegal money is separated into layers during the transaction. The intention is to distance the money from the original source.

“At this point, syndicate members will withdraw the money through numerous transactions using various banks, including offshore banks using fake companies without assets or operations,” the source added.

The company will make fake transactions to allow cash to flow and funds are later recycled through some other companies as “clean” money.

“The final step is integration. This money will be absorbed into the legal financial system. It turns the dirty money into clean money obtained through legal channels. At this point, it is hard to tell which is clean or dirty money.

“The so-called clean money can already be used to buy anything. Criminals will buy assets such as hotels, houses, jewellery, etc.”

Another source said these criminals also create businesses and companies to add the illegal money with clean income, including investment on celebrities.

The source said the anti-corruption agency started investigating the Macau scam and online gambling syndicate after detecting a “money trail” from China.

The mastermind is believed to be a China national who used “agents” in Malaysia to manage “investments”, including finding potential businesses as a platform to “clean up” the money. – November 3, 2020.