26 arrested in Melaka for alleged involvement in Macau scam

Police arrested 26 individuals, including a local man, for their alleged involvement in a ''Macau Scam'' syndicate after raiding a two-storey bungalow in Ayer Keroh here, last Friday.

In the 1.50pm raid, a police team from the Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) and Melaka police contingent arrested 21 Chinese nationals, four Taiwanese and a local man aged between 18 and 51.

Melaka deputy police chief SAC Datuk Ruslan Hassan said the bungalow was believed to serve as a call centre where the syndicate preyed on Malaysian and Hong Kong victims in the past three months.

"When we raided the house most of the suspects were busy making calls to victims and did not have time to escape. Police also seized a Toyota Alphard, laptops, 37 mobile phones and fixed lines, modems, printers, script documents for fraudulent purposes, walkie-talkie and RM2,100 cash," he told reporters at a press conference here today.

Elaborating on the syndicate''s modus operandi , Ruslan said the suspects applied various tactics among them offering lucky draw prizes worth millions of dollars to victims and those who wished to redeem the prizes were required to deposit a sum of money as tax or insurance payment into a third party bank account.

He said the suspects would also pose as court officers or police personnel when calling victims to inform that they were involved in illegal activities such as ''Ah Long'' or triad activities before instructing them to transfer money to a bank account to avoid having their properties seized.

"In addition, the suspects will pose as bank officers when calling the victims to inform them of their outstanding credit card debts which had to be settled to avoid being blacklisted," he said.

According to Ruslan the 25 foreign suspects who entered the country using social visit pass were being remanded until tomorrow to facilitate investigations under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.

He advised the public to be wary and not to be easily influenced and disclose their personal information such as identity card, passport and bank account numbers to strangers.

-- BERNAMA