Recently, the police in Johor, Malaysia, dismantled two illegal call centers and successfully arrested 71 individuals, including 35 foreigners.
This operation mainly targeted online gambling and fake job recruitment scams, with charges brought against 18 Chinese nationals.
According to the Commercial Crime Investigation Department of Johor, the police launched a raid on two office units in Iskandar Puteri after receiving intelligence, dismantling two gangs involved in different criminal activities.
The first gang has been active since October, using the illegal call center to post fake job advertisements targeting citizens of countries like Russia and India.
The second gang started its operations in early November, involving online gambling, including the development and sale of gambling software, with victims including both locals and foreigners.
The Chief of Johor Police, Kumaran, stated that the police first targeted the gang involved in online gambling, arresting 18 Chinese men aged between 26 and 44, who have been charged with operating online gambling.
The subsequent operation focused on fake recruitment, resulting in the arrest of 53 suspects, men and women aged between 22 and 52, including 36 locals and 17 foreigners. The police also seized items worth approximately 145,000 Malaysian Ringgit (about 36,000 Singapore Dollars) from the scene, including mobile phones, computers, and wireless network equipment.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the scam gang had a clear division of labor. The first group of members posed as customer service or data entry operators, sending fake online job opportunities to people overseas via instant messaging platforms like Telegram, promising high salaries to lure victims into participating. Once the victims provided their personal information, the second group of members would further contact them and induce them to pay fees.
Kumaran noted that as the case is still under investigation, the arrested suspects have not been formally charged yet. The police will continue to follow up on this case, striving to thoroughly combat cybercrime.
