MALAYSIAN police, in collaboration with their Singaporean counterparts, arrested three Malaysian men on suspicion of being involved in an international online job scam syndicate in a raid on a luxury condominium in Taman Desa Skudai, Johor Baru, last Thursday.

Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Mohd Kamarudin Md Din said based on investigations, the syndicate started its operation in June and used social media, such as Instagram and Facebook, to offer job opportunities, including as company agents, to buy goods through the e-dagang platform.

“Purchases are believed to increase the rating of the products and sales value of related companies with promise of daily income of between RM200 and RM300,” he said in a statement today.

“Those who are interested to join will then receive a message via WhatsApp containing links to the items to be purchased, and told that after making the purchase, they will be reimbursed with the same amount spent on their purchases and a commission of 5-8%.

“However, after the purchase is made, no reimbursement or commission was received by the victims. Instead, the victims were told to make other payments to a mule account, purportedly for processing fee, tax penalty, foreign exchange rate and so on.”   

Kamarudin said the victim only realised that they had been conned when the payment promised to them did not come.

“Based on the seizures made, it is believed that this syndicate is linked to 95 police reports lodged by victims in Singapore, involving losses amounting to S$690,000 (RM2.15 million) and at least one police report in Malaysia involving a loss of RM21,700,” he said.

On the three suspects, aged between 21 and 27, he said their role was to transfer money from the mule account to e-wallet accounts given by the syndicate.

“They are required to make cryptocurrency (USDt) purchases and received a 0.2% commission with an estimated value of S$600 per day,” he said.

Kamarudin said police in Malaysia and Singapore are working to track down the remaining members of the syndicate.

In the raid, police also seized two laptops, seven mobile phones, 12 automated teller machine cards, two routers and several related documents,” he said, adding that the case is being investigated under section 420 of the penal code and section 4 of the Computer Crimes Act 1997, as well as under the Prevention of Crime Act 1959 and the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001.

Kamarudin advised the public to always be careful and take the necessary precautionary measures to avoid falling prey to such fraudulent activities.

“Contact the CCID Scam Response Centre at 03-26101559/1599 if you have any doubts or information regarding commercial criminal activities,” he said. – Bernama, August 28, 2021.