Cops Bust Job Scam Syndicate Targeting Britons

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Melaka police chief Zainol Samah said 13 local men, one local woman, and three foreign men were detained during the raid. (Bernama pic)PETALING JAYA: Melaka police busted a job scam syndicate targeting British nationals with the arrest of 17 suspects involved in operating a call centre from a bungalow in Ayer Keroh.
Melaka police chief Zainol Samah said the syndicate offered non-existent part-time jobs to Britons on the https://thesapbusiness-uk.com/#/ website.
He said the suspects, including the 35-year-old supervisor of the call centre, were nabbed during a raid at 12.23am.
“Thirteen local men, one local woman, and three foreign men, aged between 17 and 40, were busy running the centre,” he told a press conference.
Police also seized various assets and equipment, including 18 computers, 60 mobile phones and two vehicles worth more than RM100,000, reported Bernama.
According to Zainol, the syndicate is believed to have been operating from the bungalow since September.
“Early investigations showed that the syndicate used prepaid telephone numbers from Britain to randomly send short messages in English with offers of non-existent part-time jobs to people in that country,” he said, adding that the syndicate communicated with its victims via Telegram and WhatsApp.
After registering on the website, the victims were subsequently given positive job ratings on a fraudulent website supplied by the syndicate, earning them a commission of 0.35 USDT in cryptocurrency for each “rating”.
He said victims were then required to deposit a sum of money to receive the promised commission. They only realised that they had been cheated after failing to get the commission.
“The 17 suspects were paid a monthly salary of RM4,000 each, apart from a 10% commission from the amount scammed from victims,” he said.
All the suspects have been remanded for four days, beginning today, for further investigation under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating and Section 120B for criminal conspiracy. Five of them had criminal records for involvement in cheating cases.
He said the syndicate was believed to be linked to an online scam group crippled by the immigration department in Langkawi, Kedah, early this year. - FMT

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