Selangor police have dismantled five scam call centres operating out of residential units, arresting 40 individuals involved in various international fraud syndicates.
SHAH ALAM: Selangor police have crippled several fraud syndicates, including love scams, phone scams and adult video subscription scams, following the arrest of 40 individuals in separate raids on five call centre premises across the state.
Selangor police chief Datuk Shazeli Kahar said the raids, conducted by the Selangor Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID), together with the Commercial Crime Investigation Divisions of the Sungai Buloh, Shah Alam, Kajang and Subang Jaya district police headquarters between Aug 18 and 25, involved three local men as well as 32 foreign men and five foreign women.
“Through the series of raids, police busted five call centre premises that were used as bases by the syndicates to carry out fraudulent activities targeting victims overseas.
“All those arrested acted as customer service operators, while various communication equipment and other items related to the case, with a total value of RM165,000, were also seized,” he told a media conference at the Selangor Police Contingent Headquarters here today.
He said checs found that all the syndicates began to be active separately since the middle of this year by renting residential premises such as condominiums, bungalows and terrace houses to avoid detection by the authorities.
According to Shazeli, preliminary investigations uncovered a new tactic used by the syndicates, involving the use of police identification cards and photographs of police officers from foreign countries to deceive victims.
In the first raid in Sungai Buloh on Aug 18, he said police arrested 10 foreign men who impersonated police officers to deceive Japanese nationals through phone scams.
“The second operation, in Bukit Rimau on Aug 19, involved adult video subscription scam conducted through a website targeting Chinese nationals.
“The third raid in Kajang on Aug 20 led to the arrest of three Malaysian men and four foreign men, who were carrying out phone scams targeting Japanese nationals using the Line application and ‘Swapface’ technology,” he said.
In the fourth and fifth raids in Sungai Buloh and Subang Jaya on Aug 24 and 25, Shazeli said they uncovered love scams targeting victims from Hong Kong and Taiwan through the use of QQ and Telegram applications.
He said all the foreign suspects were believed to have entered the country using tourist passes and have been remanded to assist in investigations under sections 420 and 120B of the Penal Code.
Police also seized hundreds of mobile phones, computer sets, laptops, routers, vehicles and books believed to contain scam scripts used by the operators.
As such, Shazeli urged the public to provide information on the existence of fraudulent call centres in residential areas or commercial premises to enable immediate enforcement action to be taken.
