Police arrest seven Chinese nationals in Kedah raid for love scam syndicate targeting Japanese victims via LINE and Langmate apps.
ALOR SETAR: Police have busted an online love scam syndicate preying on Japanese victims, following a raid on a shop lot in the Kristal Light Industrial Park here last Sunday that led to the arrest of seven Chinese nationals.
Kedah police chief Datuk Adzli Abu Shah said the raid, which was conducted at 1.40 pm on July 20, was based on intelligence that the premises were being used as a call centre for the online scam syndicate.
He said the male suspects, aged between 21 and 30, are believed to have played a role in identifying potential victims before passing their details to another group.
READ MORE: IPTA student loses RM56,375 in love scam
“Investigations revealed that they were recruited in China, through overseas job offers advertised on the Douyin app.
“The men were brought into Malaysia and placed at the premises, with salaries ranging from RM2,000 to RM3,000, to scam victims in Japan, ” he told reporters here today.
He said the syndicate is believed to have begun operations since mid-June, using the LINE and Langmate apps to create fake identities to deceive victims.
Information obtained from seized computers revealed that 19 Japanese nationals have fallen prey to the syndicate. Police are continuing to determine the actual number of victims as well as identify the syndicate’s upper-level network.
“We also seized 58 items believed to have been used in the criminal activities, including 34 mobile phones, six laptops, one monitor, one CPU, one router and a modem, all estimated at RM50,000,” he said.
He said the suspects have been remanded from July 21 to 24 to assist investigations under Section 420 of the Penal Code, Section 120B of the Penal Code, and Section 6(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63.
Adzli said police have also identified a Malaysian premises owner believed to be linked to the syndicate, but he remains at large and efforts to track him down are still ongoing.
He stressed that police will not tolerate any individual or group involved in online fraud, and urged the public to come forward with information on any suspicious activity.
