Most Malaysians who escaped the clutches of foreign scam syndicates had voluntarily gone abroad to work and later overstayed, falsely claiming to be "victims" waiting to be rescued and returned to their country!
Sufian, the Senior Assistant Director of the D3 Anti-Trafficking in Persons Monitoring Unit at Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department, told the "Radiance Daily" that from 2021 to August 9 last year, the police received 412 reports of nationals working for illegal groups in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand.
He said that these reports involved 533 people, of whom 424 have been rescued, while another 109 remain trapped.
"These groups recruit new members on social media platforms, offering attractive salaries of about 15,000 Malaysian Ringgit, and falsely claim they are working in hotels or casinos, when in fact they are involved in online gambling and scams.
He mentioned that some nationals, after being deceived into joining these groups, refuse to engage in illegal activities and seek help to return home as "victims"; others voluntarily stay to work locally.
"When rescue units traveled overseas to try to save these trapped individuals, some of them actually did not want to return to Malaysia. Over the past three years, at least 20 nationals have been rescued and then went abroad again to work for illegal groups."
He noted that some of these individuals have traveled between foreign countries and Malaysia two to three times; others, due to overstaying abroad, cannot return to Malaysia through normal procedures and falsely claim to be deceived "victims" seeking help to return.
"Investigations found that some individuals also have criminal records; in fact, 50% of the rescued nationals knew from the start that they were involved in the scam industry."
