Kedah police have crippled a ring of confidence tricksters which used the name of the Raja Muda of Kedah to collect funds with the arrest of two men in Kajang, Selangor and in Penang last month.

The suspects, aged 62 and 40 were picked up on Feb 14 and 18, respectively.

This followed a police report lodged by a security officer of the Istana Anak Bukit on Feb 12.

According to state police commercial crime investigation department chief Supt Chan Teck Paing, the palace security officer lodged the report after receiving a WhatsApp application message from an individual.

The individual wanted verification on a fund set up under the name of the Raja Muda of Kedah to bring gold bars which were taken during the British Occupation, he told Bernama at the state police contingent headquarters today.

Chan said prior to the arrests, the ring of confidence tricksters had deceived many victims to the tune of more than RM342,000 in lieu of the bogus fund since last December.

"Based on our investigations, it was found the modus operandi of the group was to hoodwink potential victims into believing they would be rewarded if they contributed to the fund to bring home the gold bars purported to be worth billions of ringgit.

"The group had also claimed the so-called fund was under the auspices of the Raja Muda of Kedah to raise money for the release of the 200 gold bars which were stored abroad, now that the 200 years agreement between the British and two overseas banks had ended.

"They deceived victims by promising huge returns. For those who contributed RM11,000 to the fund, they were promised a RM300 million reward.

"So far, none of the victims have come forward to lodge a police report," he added.

Meanwhile, the police have sought three individuals to facilitate investigations into the case.

They are a couple, aged 57 and 60, whose last known address was at Jalan Kempas, Johor Bahru, and a former policeman, aged 35, from Taman Sejati Indah, Sungai Petani here. - BERNAMA