KUALA LUMPUR: Police have nabbed seven Japanese men suspected of being involved in a phone scam syndicate in a raid conducted at a residence here on Monday.
Bukit Aman Commercial CID director Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said the suspects aged between 23 and 41 were picked up after receiving a report from the Japanese Embassy in Malaysia on the same day.
"The Japanese Embassy informed that it has received a complaint from its citizen who was duped with offer of employment in Malaysia and he only became aware of being a scam victim after arriving in the country to work as a scammer.
"The syndicate carried out phone scam using the Skype application targeting Japanese," he said in a special media conference here today.
Ramli said further investigations found the modus operandi of the syndicate was to impersonate as a bank officer to trick victims that their accounts have problems and they need to make payment to the bank account of the syndicate to settle the matter.
He said in the raid, 11 units of mobile phones, a modem, a black plastic bag of electronic items, a hammer, and a bunch of keys were confiscated and all supects were remanded until yesterday and they are now detained the Immigration Act 1959/63.
"Even though we seldom hear of syndicates involving Japanese, the criminals were actively looking at various new tactics to find victims," said Ramli who advised the people to be alert of the latest tactics of the scammers.
Meanwhile, in another development, he said 115 reports have been received so far on the loss of RM118.6 million in the money laundering case involving i-Serve believed to be linked to the founder of MYAirline.
Ramli said police are still investigating and so far 10 individuals have been detained to assist investigation.
The probe into i-Serve and the network of companies under the founder began on Oct 17 when the founder and shareholder of the airline with the title 'Datuk' as well as his wife and son were arrested to assist investigation under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.-- BERNAMA