Bukit Aman warns of online scams offering lucrative jobs

KUALA LUMPUR: The Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) has warned that fraud syndicates are using social media platforms to offer jobs online promising high incomes of between RM200 and RM300 a day.

Bukit Aman CCID director Datuk Mohd Kamarudin Md Din said the syndicate targetted those looking for part-time work to boost their income or housewives.

"As many are working from home and are affected by COVID-19, this syndicate is using this modus operandi.

"To attract potential victims, they use names of big companies like Lazada, Shopee, Seng Heng and Carousell," he said in a statement yesterday.

He said the authorities and the affected companies had issued many statements denying involvement in such job offers.

Mohd Kamarudin said the syndicates would use media social platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook to offer jobs as company agents to purchase items on e-commerce platforms to boost ratings.

"The victim would receive Whatsapp messages and be given a link to choose the items that needed to be purchased and were given several assignments that needed to be completed within a certain period.

"The victim will also be ordered to send the photographs of the selected items to the suspect, who will then order the victim to make the payment for the selected items to the mule account provided by the suspect," he said.

To convince the victim that the job was real, the victim would be told that every purchase made would be repaid along with an additional commission of between five to eight per cent.

The CCID has established a special task force to investigate these scams and to track and arrest those responsible, he said.

Mohd Kamarudin said that the department arrested 168 individuals in relation to such scams, which have resulted in losses amounting to RM4.6 million between January and Aug 31 this year.

-- BERNAMA