Kuala Lumpur: The Immigration Department has dismantled a foreign-led online scam syndicate with the arrest of 46 individuals from multiple countries. Deputy director-general, Jafri Embok Taha, said the individuals aged between 23 and 54 from China, Indonesia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Laos, and Thailand, were detained during raids on 17 luxury residential units in Kuchai Lama, Kuala Lumpur, around 11.30 am yesterday.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, the arrests were made following public tip-offs and nearly three weeks of intelligence gathering. The syndicate had rented these premises as call centres to deceive victims with fraudulent offers involving gold, real estate, luxury yachts, stock investments, and foreign exchange schemes.

The syndicate, which had been operating for nearly three months, lured both local and foreign victims via Facebook, TikTok, WeChat, WhatsApp, and Telegram. The group contacted victims using randomly obtained phone numbers. Once someone showed interest, they were instructed to transfer money into an account provided by a syndicate member via a link connected to an administrator.

Victims only realised they had been scammed when they could no longer contact the syndicate after transferring funds to local accounts, believed to be money mules. The syndicate also ran online gambling and love scams. Their estimated daily profits ranged between RM100,000 and RM150,000, while members were paid monthly wages of RM2,500 to RM3,500.

Authorities seized two server racks, four laptops, 88 mobile phones, three routers, four modems, 26 SIM cards, and RM100,000 in cash. The foreign nationals were detained under Section 51(5)(b) of the Immigration Act 1959/63 for offences such as entering Malaysia without valid passes, overstaying, and breaching Social Visit Pass conditions.