By Zaki Salleh
Photo PDRM
KUALA LUMPUR: The Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) is relentlessly combating the activities of various scam call center syndicates, having carried out 148 raids throughout this year.
This is aimed at dismantling scam call centers identified across the country.
Out of these raids, 46 were related to investment fraud, 39 involved online purchase fraud, 23 were phone call scams, 19 were related to gambling, 15 were associated with ‘along’ scams, five were connected to non-existent loans, and two each were related to love scams and dummy account providers.
The Director of the Commercial Crime Investigation Department of Bukit Aman, Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf, mentioned that the investigations revealed that only 69 of the raided call centers were targeting Malaysian victims.
While, the rest were targeting victims from around the world, including China (38), Singapore (13), the United Kingdom (5), and the Philippines (4).
“To deceive victims from foreign countries, these call centers would use specialized applications that enable them to communicate in the intermediary language used in the targeted country,” he said in a statement.
A total of 1,160 individuals were arrested on suspicion of involvement in these syndicates.
Of this number, 791 were Malaysian citizens, while others were from China (300), Indonesia (20), Taiwan (13), Bangladesh (8), Vietnam (6), Pakistan (4), Thailand (3), Singapore (3), Philippines (2) and India (2).
In addition, there was one individual each from the United Kingdom, France, Nigeria, Nepal, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Jordan and Iran.
Ramli stated that the detention of foreign nationals involved in these call centers has been reported to the relevant embassies for further action.
“The police have also actively established cooperation with foreign authorities, including the United States, Singapore, and Australia, to ensure that cross-border fraud crimes can be combated,” he added.
