Nation

Saifuddin: Not all victims are duped by foreign job scam [NSTTV]

KUALA LUMPUR: Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail today revealed in the Dewan Rakyat that not all of those who became victims of job scams abroad were duped by the tactics employed by the syndicates.

He said that based on the profiling conducted by the police on the victims that were rescued and returned home, there were four categories of job scam victims.

"First, those who were attracted to the job advertisements, but then they found that the situation (after they arrived in the respective country) was not as what they had imagined.

"Second, they were aware from the beginning that they would be scammers, be it cryptocurrency or love scams. When they reached the KPI (key performance indicator) set by the syndicate they were working with, they refused to return home.

"However, when they were unable to reach the KPI set, they said that they were the victims of a job scams syndicate and contacted us, asking to be rescued," he said in response to an additional question from Sim Tze Tzin (PH-Bayan Baru).

Saifuddin added that some of the victims saved were those who suffered gambling loss while abroad.

"They were stranded because they could not pay their debts, therefore they contacted the authorities, asking to be rescued. (And) we bring them home, based on the principle of the right of return.

"There were also cases where we managed to bring them home, but then they left (again). The police were devastated when they found out the same individuals (who were saved before) were asking to be rescued again," he said.

Earlier, Saifuddin said 339 Malaysians were stranded abroad due to job scams, involving countries such as Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Dubai.

"Of the total, 218 were rescued while another 121 were still stranded," he said, adding that the police were currently on a mission to rescue some of them in Thailand.

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