ALOR STAR, Jan 8 — A total of 134 Macau Scam cases were reported in Kedah last year resulting in losses of RM4.6 million, said Kedah Commercial Crime Investigation Department chief Supt Chan Teck Paing.
He said the victims were local residents from various backgrounds including housewives who were deceived into transferring their money into the syndicate’s accounts in neighbouring countries.
He said the syndicate was also turning to locals from among the Malays instead of recruiting foreigners as before.
“Investigations revealed that the syndicate had begun recruiting locals who are mainly Malays and from last year’s statistics 93 of the victims were Malays, 34 were Chinese and seven cases involved Indians.
“The victims ranged from businessmen, teachers, financial services employees and housewives,” he told reporters at the Kedah Police Contingent Headquarters here today.
Chan said acting on complaints, police detained 63 syndicate members last year and four more were arrested this year to facilitate investigations.
He said from December last year until today, police have received 18 reports of which 15 were spared from being deceived as they realised it was a scam soon enough.
However two business women and a hotel employee lost RM32,000 after they were deceived by the syndicate, he added.
As such he advised the public to be wary of the syndicate’s modus operandi and to contact the authorities if they received suspicious phone calls. — Bernama
