Mohd Azman speaks at the press conference. With him are (from right) Deputy Police Commissioner Datuk Mancha Ata, CCID Sarawak chief Supt Maria Rasid and her deputy DSP Jimbun Dian.
KUCHING (April 26): The Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) will seek the help of Interpol under the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 2002, to locate six Sarawakian men who fell for a job scam in Cambodia.
Sarawak Police Commissioner Dato Mohd Azman Ahmad Sapri said the state Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) has opened two investigation papers under Section 420 of the Penal Code.
“We have received six police reports between April 20 and 22, 2022 lodged by family members of the victims, who are said to have been cheated into working in Cambodia,” he told a press conference here yesterday.
It was informed that the victims, aged between 19 and 39, are from Kuching and Serian.
“Preliminary investigations indicate that all six victims had been offered job opportunities in Cambodia by an agent (suspect).
“They then went to Cambodia but once there, they were forced to do fraudulent work at a call centre,” said Mohd Azman.
He reiterated the call by PDRM advising people against being fooled by lucrative job offers being advertised and promoted over the internet, especially on social media.
“Many syndicates usually advertise such jobs in newspapers, and via Facebook, WhatsApp and WeChat apps, offering lucrative salaries and various facilities to draw people to contact them.
“This is why police have repeatedly stressed to the public before ever committing anything to these so-called ‘agents’, you must thoroughly check the validity of the job offers, which can be done through the PDRM portal (http://www.rmp.ov.my), or by calling our secretariat.
“Check if these job offers really exist or if the agents are legitimate,” he said.
When asked if the modus operandi of the latest Cambodian job scam was the same with the case in 2019 involving 40 Sarawakians, Mohd Azman responded ‘more or less the same’.
“The syndicate would come here to recruit locals, offering jobs abroad to them and promising attractive salaries.
“However, once they’re brought to the neighbouring country, only then would they realise that they’ve been cheated; instead of doing decent work, they’re forced to do illegal work like running the Macau scam call centre,” he said.
On a related subject, Mohd Azman said in the first three months of this year, a total of 666 fraud cases had been reported in Sarawak, versus 640 cases recorded in the same period last year.
This, he said, represented a year-on-year increase in cases of 27.45 per cent.
“Among the cases recorded between January and March 2022 were those related to investment fraud, with 23 cases and losses amounting to RM2.6 million; impersonation or disguise fraud with 85 cases involving RM1.8 million; Macau scam with 48 cases involving RM1.7 million; job scams with 58 cases involving RM786,000; and loan fraud with 63 cases involving RM419,000,” he elaborated.
The public can call CCID Scam Response Centre on 03-26101559/03-26101599, or the CCID Infoline 013-211 1222 (SMS/WhatsApp) to obtain advice or channel information about crime.
The public can also verify any agent’s bank account number via http://ccid.rmp.gov.my /semakmule/.
More information can be obtained on the CCID Facebook page.
from Borneo Post Online https://ift.tt/RowTx1S
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment