Lamenting the fact that scammers have been around for many years, cheating people of their life savings, Teo said it was time the relevant enforcement authorities, including the police, were equipped to deal with such crime.

“I refer to the case in Kuching where a teacher lost almost RM600,000 of her savings after falling prey to a financial scam there.

“I urge police to set up this squad which is similar to one set up in China to arrest love/parcel scammers that have been rampant over the last five years. The China squad had been quite successful in the last few years in solving these sort of cases.

“To make it worse these victims are teachers, housewives and engineers,” he said at a press conference in Parliament here today.

He said these scammers were locals and foreign students based in Kuala Lumpur that have been operating for years.

“Most of them are Nigerian students who come into the country under the guise of attending college but they hardly do. In many cases the money that is lost is gone forever, hardly any of it can be recovered.

“However, I have yet to see any of these scammers that operate in Miri being arrested and I am quite surprise by that fact,” he said.

Teo’s PKR colleague, Lumut MP Mohamad Imran Abdul Hamid said he too was extremely sad for the victims that were cheated of their life savings.

“We urge victims to quickly report these incidences to the police as we have confidence that the police will be able to solve these cases if reported quickly.

“We want the police to act quickly against these scammers be they in the country or outside, as these scammers have no conscience about their victims losing all their money.”