Malaysian police have shut down 40 scam syndicate call center bases nationwide, arresting 426 suspects of various nationalities, with the youngest being only 16 years old.
These scam syndicates engaged in various frauds including investment scams, employment scams, online gambling, e-commerce fraud, romance scams, donation scams, as well as promoting and distributing pornographic videos to swindle money, targeting people from at least 9 countries.
The Director of Commercial Crime Investigation Department at Bukit Aman, Datuk Seri Nordin, stated that during this period, the police launched 63 special operations across the country to dismantle the call center bases set up by the scam syndicates, arresting 331 men and 95 women, with suspects' ages ranging from 16 to 55 years old.
He revealed at a press conference that among the arrested, 146 were locals, while others were from Thailand (21), China (224), Indonesia (18), Nigeria (5), Pakistan (3), Zimbabwe (2), Ukraine (2), Kenya (1), Tajikistan (1), Taiwan (1), Guinea (1), and Syria (1).
He disclosed that the destroyed call center bases not only scammed locals but also targeted people from the United States, China, Japan, India, the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
"The arrested suspects held various positions such as group managers, supervisors, customer service staff, advertisers, finance personnel, and computer technicians; 261 of the suspects have been charged."
