Johor state police made a successful snag when they managed to apprehend and bring down the country’s pioneering Macau Scam syndicate who used state of the art technology for their illegal operation.
Ho & Michael the syndicate known for their sophisticated technique in scamming their victims, used ‘Got Further 62400’ a scrambling system they managed to develop for their schemes. These are the gang who have been scamming people by making phone calls and telling them that they are either from Bukit Aman, MACC, Custom, or LHDN and telling the person that they have conducted a crime which include money laundering. With such bad intentions, its been a wonder why people join these organisations to commit such crimes in the first place, the latest nab sheds some light on this.
The apprehending of the culprits actually exposed the employment structure of the scamming group, an insight usually kept sketchy and mysterious. Questions were raised on who and why people were working for these nefarious agents, who recruited them and what is the carrot drawing them to do such acts. The arrest which took place in Mount Austin Johor Baru, police nabbed 12 individuals between the age of 20- 45, among them 8 men and 4 women. A supervisor, an IT specialist including 10 other phone operators made up the total gang. Staffs were paid full month salary with commission as incentive to lure more victims, according to Johor Police Chief, salary package was between RM3000-RM5000 and commission can be anywhere between 3-7% of total money scammed. Its been reported that the syndicate has managed to scam 12 known victims totaling RM595, 299 thus far, which would indicate more than RM40,000 in commission paid out. However the bosses Ho and Michael, running this scam belong to the 5 Colour Gang and are currently on the run from the authorities, both are Malaysians, so not sure if the staffs can collect their pay or commission at this moment.
So although looking more like a modest salary package, yet its surprising to see Malaysians joining these illegal organisations knowing for a fact they will be cheating innocent people of their life savings. The same amount of salary can be earned working as car sales representative or shop assistant with commission.
The people hired are not unskilled, they are trained to handle VOIP telephony system and Interactive Voice System, both regarded needing high end equipment. During the raid the police discovered laptops, 40 mobile phones, CPU tower, 2 monitors, a printer and a paper shredder.
This is the first time a local Macau Scam syndicate was busted, most operations are usually ran by foreign agents in Thailand, Myanmar, Australia, Japan or Vietnam. Its a major breakthrough, added the Johor Chief,
