ILLEGAL INTERNET SYNDICATE: Mohd Rodwan showing the advert used by the illegal Internet Pay Television (IPTV) syndicate. — Bernama photo
BUTTERWORTH: Police detained 12 individuals and busted a first of its kind illegal Internet Pay Television (IPTV) syndicate in Malaysia, last Friday.
Bukit Aman Commercial Crimes Investigation Department, deputy director 11, Datuk Mohd Rodwan Mohd Yusuf said nine men and three women, between 28 and 40, were arrested in a joint operation with the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission and CyberSecurity Malaysia, in five separate raids in Penang, Kedah and Perlis.
“During a one-month surveillance by these two agencies, we obtained information that a company was providing IPTV services illegally,” he said at a press conference here yesterday.
“We detained the managing director of the company and his wife, who is a secondary school teacher, in a raid at the Park View Tower condominium here,” he said.
“We found that they were using the sixth floor premises as their operations centre to provide applications and content to customers nationwide,” he added.
Mohd Rodwan said the syndicate was selling foreign television content applications illegally and added that they had been operating for a year with profits running into the millions.
They sold decoders at RM400 each and charged monthly rates as low as RM29, he said.
“A variety of foreign programmes were available through this illegal IPTV, including five pornography channels. They had more than 2,000 customers in the span of a year,” he said.
Various equipment such as decoders, servers and computers estimated at more than RM400,000 were also seized, he said.
“Of the 12, seven have been released on police bail, while five are in remand for four days to facilitate investigations,” he said. — Bernama