'Macau scam' syndicate busted

PETALING JAYA: A scam syndicate known as "Macau Scam" that has cheated the public was thwarted by police from the Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) today.
Operating out of a bungalow in Shah Alam since March, police had arrested 25 individuals, 20 of whom were Chinese nationals and five others were Taiwanese.
CCID director Commissioner Datuk Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said that the syndicate's modus operandi was getting these phony operators to pose as employees of telecommunications companies, they would then call unsuspecting victims informing them that their bills were overdue and get them to settle it.
"Police raids also had confiscated a Toyota Vellfire, 10 Chinese passports, five Taiwan passports, four laptops, 16 tablets along with scripts these operators would use to scam their victims," he said in a statement.
"Taiwanese authorities had received about 100 reports about this scam in Taiwan, however the amount of losses accrued is not yet known," he said.
Acryl said that the raid was done with cooperation with Taiwanese police forces.
Meanwhile, Acryl said during the first four months of this year, police have been investigating 270 cases of this Macau Scam fraud involving losses of RM9.49 million.
He said the syndicate was detected using the facilities Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to pose as bank employees, police, court officials and employees of telecommunications companies to lure unsuspecting victims to transfer money to the syndicate's designated account.
"People are asked to be careful and vigilant not to fall for the tactics used by the syndicate.
"If you have a situation like this, the public is asked to immediately contact the bank or relevant agencies for clarification," he said.