KUALA LUMPUR: The police’s Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) has successfully dismantled three syndicates involved in various forms of cheating this month.
According to its director, Comm Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf, the syndicates were engaged in activities such as recruiting mule account holders, conducting bogus investments, and dealing in non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
The first raid took place on March 19 in Segambut, where a suspected call center was raided.
Comm Datuk Seri Ramli revealed that the center was likely a part of a syndicate’s financial unit responsible for managing their bank accounts, which were linked to mules based in Singapore.
He explained, “The group would recruit mule account holders in Singapore and transfer money between accounts, a process known as ‘layering’.”
Five locals aged between 24 and 28 were arrested during this operation.
The second raid occurred on March 25 in Jalan Ampang, following a police report made by a Taiwanese businessman who fell victim to a bogus investment scheme.
The businessman was lured into an ‘online purchasing investment scheme’ via WeChat, where he transferred RM331,000 to a cryptocurrency e-wallet expecting returns that never materialized.
Nineteen individuals aged between 22 and 55 were apprehended during this raid.
Investigations revealed that the group had only been operating at the premises for about a month and was in the process of setting up a platform to target Chinese nationals with the investment scheme.
All suspects were remanded until March 29th.
On the same day, another online investment scam center was busted in Jalan Pinang.
This syndicate was found trading NFTs on platforms like Discord and X, posing as key opinion leaders in the NFT trading space and using an online platform to conduct transactions.
Preliminary investigations indicated that the syndicate engaged in unauthorized transactions to make profits and exploited ewallet accounts for monetary gain.
Seven suspects were arrested during this raid and remanded until March 29th.
