Malaysian and Chinese police hold simultaneous raids to Macau scam

KUALA LUMPUR: In a first of its kind operation, the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) together with its Chinese counterparts held simultaneous raids in their respective countries to weed out and cripple a syndicate that has cheated victims in both countries of RM13 million in loses.

Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Commissioner Datuk Amar Singh said the raids were conducted in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Penang, whereas in China, the raids were conducted in Hunan and Guangdong.

"Our raids were carried out on Dec 12 and we arrested 65 individuals of Chinese nationality aged between 30 to 45 in houses and premises across these three states," he said at a press conference today.

He added that 75 Chinese nationals who were involved in this scam which is better known as the "Macau Scam" were caught by authorities in China.

He said the 65 suspects caught here were in the country for about six months on a tourist visa and were using Malaysia as a base for scamming people back in China, whereas the suspects caught in China were scamming people in Malaysia.

"They ran the syndicate from houses in posh neighbourhoods," he said.

He added the suspects have been remanded until Dec 26, after which they will be deported to China where they will face the due course of the law there.

He said that the modus operandi of the Macau scam was that the scammers would call up their victims claiming to be from a bank. They would then give fake information to the victim and lead them to believe that their bank accounts were part of a criminal investigation.

The scammers would instruct the victims to deposit money into an undisclosed account, and once that is done the scammers will make away with the stolen money.

"The syndicate members will contact these victims using voice over internet protocol service (VoIP) by amending the caller's number and deceiving victims with false information," he said.

Meanwhile Amar also had released a list of 30 companies that are involved in money scams or "money games" this year which had affected almost a million victims and accrued losses of RM3.8 billion.

He said that many of these investors are tricked by thinking that they will get higher returns on their investment.

Below are a list of the 30 companies:

1. MGSB

2. Capital Foster Advisor

3. Royal Gold (Gold investment)

4. Kongsi Makan

5. Richway

6. Monspace

7. MFace/MBI

8. Century Dinasty

9. Bookcoin

10. Bit Coin – Al Mubin Agarwood

11. Bit Coin - Bit Kingdom

12. MI1 Global Sdn Bhd

13. ZG Space City (M) Sdn Bhd

14. Farbel High Ventures / Farbel Rich

15. Roopers Burger

16. Pro Vending Machine

17. Saham 500 Plus

18. Kopi Pak Belalang

19. NHA Strategic Holding Bhd

20. Dana Kesultanan Raja-Raja dan Pelaburan Food Truck

21. Yayasan PBI 9PBI World (Berhad)

22. Share Investment Myzia Coin

23. AGR Holding

24.Forex - FXUnited

25. Forex - TrigerFX

26. Bitclub

27. Feenra Gold & Resources

28. PTM4U

29. Jihad Farisha Ventures

30. Mines and Metals