761 cases of 'Love Scam', losses up to RM25m as of July 2015

KUALA LUMPUR: Con-men fleeced gullible members of the public to the tune of RM25 million from January to July this year in a total of 761 cases of "African Scam" (Love Scam) reported nationwide.
Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department (NCID) deputy director Commissioner Datuk Hamza Taib said following this, police launched series of raids codenamed "Ops Tiong" from July 11 to Aug 8 and arrested 35 individuals including 29 Africans, four locals, an Indonesian and a Thai national.
Hamza told a press conference today that with the arrests, police also recovered RM1.8 million and solved at least 29 "African Scam" cases.
"The suspects are in their 30s and they were picked up in different places nationwide including Klang Valley and Negri Sembilan.
"We also seized other items including 50 ATM cards, 70 mobile phones, 16 laptops and several documents used by the syndicates," he said.
He advised people to be more careful when getting into a relationship especially when it comes from social media sites.
"How can you give a big amount of money to a man you never met?
"Most of them were deceived by their sweet words," said Hamza adding that most of the suspects (Africans or Nigerians) gained entry into the country by using student visas.
Hamza added that most of the victims are single mothers, or have been cheated by local men a few times before they met with the Africans on social sites, usually through Facebook.
After exchanging phone numbers, they will keep in touch through other mediums such as WhatsApp, WeChat and Telegram.
"As a token of their love, the scammer will later tell the victim that he has sent parcels with expensive items inside including cash, jewellery and gold bars.
"They would claim that Customs is holding the package and payment was required to release it," said Hamza.
Hamza added that in 2014, a total of 1,028 "Love Scam" cases were reported with RM52 million in losses.