A police team from Bukit Aman arrested a woman and five men, aged 24 to 38, at a house in Bandar Sri Damansara, Petaling Jaya, at 1am yesterday.

Bukit Aman Commercial CID intelligence and operations deputy director, Roslan Abd Wahid said police also seized 12 cellphones, 15 bank ATM cards and a Toyota Camry car.

“Also seized were laptop computers which the suspects had used to find their victims and a pen-drive containing photos of their targets,” he told Bernama.

Preliminary investigations showed that the suspects had been involved in such activities for the past two years.

“They are believed to have used online sites such as Facebook, Tagged, Twitter and online dating sites to find and con their victims. The group would contact their identified victims and claim to be agents like bank officers to cheat them,” he said.

It is believed scammers created fake online profiles using photos of other people — even stolen pictures of real military personnel.

They profess their love quickly and tug at the women’s heartstrings with made-up stories about how they needed money for emergencies, to pay hospital bills, or travel.

According to the US Federal Trade Commission web site, such scammers set up dating profiles to meet potential victims, form an online “relationship,” and then come up with reasons to ask their love interest to set up a new bank account.

The Inspector-General of Police, Khalid Abu Bakar, sent congratulations to the team on their success, using his Twitter account.

– BERNAMA.