Macau Scam: Police open 4,865 investigation papers, 2,471 arrested

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 4,865 investigation papers on the Macau Scam syndicate were opened by the Commercial Crime Investigation Department (JSJK) of the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) this year.

JSJK Deputy Director, Datuk Mohd Kamarudin Md Din said out of the total, 2,471 arrests were also made and 1,747 have been charged in court.

According to him, the modus operandi of the syndicate was still the same, by making phone calls from centres based abroad.

"This syndicate will contact the victim using a 'spoofing' number, which is a number that has been modified using Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) and disguised as an authority or financial institution.

"The victim will be intimidated by the syndicate by saying that the victim has arrears of bank loan payments or has been involved in criminal cases such as hit-and-run accident, drugs or money laundering.

"The victim will then be asked to provide financial and banking details to the impersonator on the grounds for investigation purposes," he told Astro AWANI here on Friday.

In the meantime, Mohd Kamarudin said based on the data, the groups that were often the target of this syndicate were retirees and the elderly.

"The trend of recent victims who are exposed to this syndicate are those who are old and retired because maybe this group is less exposed to the syndicate.

"There are less young people targeted because most of them are already exposed to this technology and are aware of the existence of the syndicate," he explained.

In this regard, he said, the police will find the best solution to prevent the group from being involved in the crime.

"We will work to ensure that the information channel related to this syndicate would reach them and understood to avoid them being deceived," he added.