KUALA LUMPUR: Nine Malaysian men, deceived by an employment agency with promise of lucrative job offers abroad, found themselves working as customer service officers of an online scam syndicate, believed to be in Laos.

They were also believed to be locked up and beaten by their employer.

This was related by a mother of one of the victims, who requested to be identified only as "Wendy".

The 43-year-old woman claimed that her only child, aged 23, was offered a job in Dubai last February.

She did not know what the job was, but that she often received video and phone calls from him while he was in Dubai.

"In April this year, I got a call from my son saying that he and eight friends were in Laos, and in June, I got a call from him, which shocked me as he told me that he wanted to run away from the company he was working with.

"He said he was not given food and drink because he refused to be a phone scammer (customer service officer of a fraud syndicate)," she said when contacted by Bernama.

Wendy said her son also sent her photos of the injury inflicted on him and his friends.

She said she had lodged a police report and hoped the authorities would help find her son and bring him home.

Meanwhile, Sentul district police chief, ACP Beh Eng Lai when contacted confirmed having received the report last Wednesday (July 20) and that an investigation paper had been opened.

Previously, it was reported that 16 Malaysians were forced to work as 'scammers' by a syndicate in Preah Sihanouk in Cambodia after being deceived by job advertisements. They were rescued last April 5.

Last April 12, Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Abd Jalil Hassan said the department had received 35 reports involving 45 Malaysians believed to be stranded abroad such as in Myanmar, Thailand and Laos suspected of being victims of fraud syndicates.

-- BERNAMA