Kedah police foil attempt to set up Macau Scam centre

0

Chan shows Taiwanese passports and seized items including a computer, laptop, local sim cards, mobile phones as well as ATM cards believed to be used by syndicate to carry out their scam. – Bernama photo

ALOR SETAR: Kedah police have foiled an attempt by a group comprising Taiwanese and locals to set up an operation centre to carry out macau scam and loan fraud activities in the state.

Kedah Commercial CID chief Supt Chan Teck Paing said this followed a raid at a condominium near here at 12 noon on Wednesday by a Kedah and Kota Setar Commercial CID team.

In the raid, police detained three local men and three Taiwanese men believed to be the masterminds of the syndicate who entered Malaysia on tourist permit and all suspects were aged between 20 and 37.

“In the arrest, police nabbed another local man suspected of recruiting bank account mules, to be used by the syndicate to receive their illicit proceeds,” he told a media conference at Kedah police contingent headquarters here yesterday.

He added police also seized items worth RM15,000 including a computer, laptop, local sim cards, mobile phones as well as ATM cards believed to be used to carry out their scam.

According to him, in the first three months of this year, police recorded 28 cases of fraud involving macau scam worth half a million ringgit and 50 cases of loan fraud with RM240,000 in losses.

“In 2017, police recorded 158 cases of macau scam with losses amounting RM4.1 million and 241 loan fraud cases with losses totalling RM1.2 million,” he said.

In this regard, police are calling on the people to check police website ccid.rmp.gov.my>semakmule to check if a bank account has been involved in commercial crime cases or not.

“Do not hand over or rent your bank account, much less reveal your ATM card number or pin number to a third party, ” he said. — Bernama