Sabah Immigration Department smashes Macau scam syndicate, arrests 104 Chinese nationals

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Muhamad Sade (third left) showing some of the items used by the syndicate to carry out their scams.

KOTA KINABALU: The Immigration Department has detained 104 Chinese nationals for their involvement in a telecommunications fraud syndicate carrying out Macau scams here on Tuesday.

Sabah Immigration Department director Datuk Dr Muhamad Sade Mohamad Amin said the suspects, consisting of 94 men and 10 women, aged between 18 and 39, were arrested at three locations – a building at One Borneo Hypermall and two condominium units located at One Borneo Condominium at around 4pm on Nov 26.

“The arrests were made following a one-week surveillance carried out by my men after we received a tip-off concerning online scamming taking place in the area.

“About 41 Immigration officers and personnel raided all three premises and managed to detained all 104 suspects,” he told a press conference at the Immigration Department’s headquarters here today.

The teams managed to seized 916 cellphones, 348 prepaid cards, 64 laptops and 28 computers that were used by the syndicate in their activities.

Muhamad Sade said investigations revealed that the syndicate’s main target were Chinese nationals living in China, using the three premises as their call centre to prevent being detected by authorities.

“We believed this syndicate has been in operation for the past two months, while all three premises had high security, requiring access cards to enter and had CCTVs installed,” he said.

Muhamad Sade also said that all the suspects were in the state under social visitor passes, with 36 of them having valid passports while the remaining 68 had no valid passports.

All 104 suspects are currently remanded for investigation under Section 6(1)(c) and Section 15(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 for control of entry into Malaysia and unlawful entry or presence in Malaysia, respectively, and Regulation 39 (b) of the Immigration Regulations 1963 for breaching their pass or permit.

Meanwhile, Muhamad Sade said the Immigration Department will continue to work closely with other agencies such as the police and their counterparts in China to curb online scamming from taking place in the state.