Joint effort by M'sia, S'pore police cripples African scam syndicate

KUALA LUMPUR: A joint effort by the Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigations Department (CCID) and Singapore's Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) managed to cripple four African scam syndicates following two raids in January in Malaysia.
The joint effort saw the arrest of 27 suspects comprising 12 African men, an Indonesian woman, while the rest were local women, aged 22 to 65.
Speaking at a joint press conference at the CCID headquarters here today, Bukit Aman CCID director Commissioner Datuk Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani and Singapore's CAD director David Chew said the syndicates were allegedly responsible for losses of RM21.6 million, from 65 victims in Malaysia and 43 victims from across the border.
"The suspects we believe are from different syndicates and they have been involved in 108 cases reported by victims in both Singapore and Malaysia.
"We realised 13 police reports out of the total police reports on this scam had a lot of similarities and thus a joint operation to cripple these syndicates was launched," Acryl said.
The raids were conducted in Penang, Negri Sembilan, Pahang, Sarawak and here, from Jan 26 till Feb 10.
Police also seized seven cars worth around RM400,000, several ATM cards, jewellery, and around RM154,690 in cash.
The suspects had used the well-known modus operandi of first gaining the trust of their victims, who were mostly women.
They would then claim a gift or a parcel meant for the victim was stuck at the customs office and a payment would be needed for its release.
A bank account, provided by an account mule, would be given to the victim where they would deposit the money.
The suspects would then lose contact with the victims once the money has been deposited.
The suspects will be investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code (Act 574), Prevention of the Crime Act 1959 (Poca) and Section 4(1) Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities 2001 (AMLATFPUAA.)
Meanwhile, Chew said this marks the first successful joint investigation between the two departments against elusive criminals involved in syndicated Internet love scams.
He added that during the course of investigations, the CAD provided "timely information" to the CCID, which allowed its investigators to establish the suspects' identities.
While arrest operations were ongoing in Malaysia, the CAD coordinated investigations against six female suspects in Singapore who transferred criminal proceeds to Malaysia-based suspects.
"The success of this joint investigation is a testament to the close ties between CAD and CCID," Chew said.
Acryl revealed in 2016, Bukit Aman received 2,365 investigation papers on African parcel scam which involved RM89,112,737 losses while for this year, as of Feb 8, estimated loss amounting to RM11 million involving 215 cases have been reported.