Malaysian, Chinese police nab 146 over telecom fraud scams

KUALA LUMPUR -- Police in Malaysia and China have worked together to nab 146 suspects over telecom fraud scams, the Malaysian state news agency Bernama reported on Tuesday, citing a senior Malaysian police officer.

Amar Singh, director of the police commercial crimes investigation department, said at a briefing that 71 suspects were caught in an operation on Dec 12, while the other 75 were nabbed by the Chinese side.

The arrests of the suspects, aged between 30 and 45, were made possible with the cooperation between the Malaysian and the Chinese police, he added.

Singh said the suspects are believed to have been conducting illegal activities in Malaysia for more than six months, using the so-called VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol services to target victims mainly in China.

Describing the suspects as members of a scam syndicate, Singh said they have swindled victims out of 13 million ringgit (￥3.19 million) by faking as staff members from banks or other financial institutions, then they would dupe victims to wire money into a certain account.

The suspects, a majority of them being Chinese nationals, have been remanded for 14 days and will be deported and handed to Chinese authorities.