JOHOR BARU: Johor police are focusing their efforts on prosecuting individuals colluding with commercial crime syndicates, especially in the Macau Scam fraud, non-existent loan schemes, buying and selling online (e-commerce) and unlicensed moneylenders.
Johor police chief Datuk Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said the individuals involved were bank account holders working together with fraud syndicates whereby they are paid money or commission on every bank account opened, to commit fraud.
According to Ayob Khan, police had previously focused on taking action against fraudulent syndicates instead of the conspiring individuals.
“To curb the increase in commercial crime cases, the Johor Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) has launched ‘Ops Mule’, where the main focus is on account holders who work with the syndicates to get a certain amount of payment or commission on every bank account opened.
“These account owners will hand over the ATM cards and account details including internet banking passwords, to syndicates via communication through social sites, messages and phone calls,” he told reporters here today.
Ayob Khan said the majority of individuals who were found involved in theses conspiracies were the homeless, drug addicts, as well as unemployed individuals who would receive a one-off payment between RM100 and RM200 on each bank account opened.
He said Johor CCID had launched two ‘Ops Mule’ series on Jan 6 to March 7 and April 24 to May 31, where it had arrested 440 account holders with 350 of them having been charged in court.
All the suspects were being investigated under Sections 420, 424, and 411 of the Penal Code, he added.
“Most of the commercial crime cases which occur daily involves government pensioners and teachers, who on the average suffered losses of between RM100,000 and RM150,000.
“Even though we (the police) have advised (them), there are still some who are affected by the crime, hence, we are asking the public to be alert and not to be greedy,” he said, adding that the total loss of victims who have fallen for these scams so far has been estimated to be at RM17.117 million. - Bernama
