One More Scam Uncovered.

KUALA LUMPUR: Multi-million-ringgit phone scam exposed by the police involving Malaysians.

After invading into a condominium in Bukit Jalil at noon, Federal Commercial Crimes Investigations Department (CCID) officers took 5 suspects into custody. The four men and a woman believed to be aged between 23 and 33. 

One gang member, aged 27, was recently seized by the Chinese government last year for another scamming crime he committed and was put behind bars for nearly one year before being deported back to Malaysia.

This consortium has actively scrapped heaps of money-millions of ringgit from gullible Malaysians for over a month.

CCID Director Commissioner Datuk Syed Ismail Syed Azizan stated that the syndicate was also tied to an event where a person had been tricked of more than RM 3.2 million in February.

Their signature modus operandi is to impersonate as Bukit Aman ploice officers or alternatively as bank officers and notify the victims that their bank accounts were being scrutinized for suspected illegal activities where syndicate members would ask the victims to telephone the “bank” for more information.

“They would then intercept the calls via Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology and tell the victims to make payments to avoid being dragged to court and transfer the funds to a special account pending investigations,” he said.

The criminals then would withdraw the money once it was transferred by victims into another account which is actually a "mule account”.

Another tactic they used is to hire youths through advertisements in Chinese papers to become the account holder for the “mule account”.

The "mule account” holders were paid between RM1,000 and RM1,500 plus commission for every account opened and money successfully transferred.

“From 2006 to 2011 there has been a sharp increase in such cases. In 2011 alone the total loss amounted to RM20mil.”