However, Johor police got wind of the scammers and smashed their operations within a week even before they could collect their first payments.
Police uncovered the group following the arrest of eight local men in three separate raids in Johor Bahru and Kulai on Oct 15 and 19.
According to Bernama, Johor police chief Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said the men, aged between 21 and 43, were suspected of acting as trainers who taught fraud techniques, involving disguising as enforcement officers, to new employees.
He said the “Macau scam” syndicate was actively recruiting and training “workers”, before they were assigned as operators at the scam’s call centres here and abroad, including in Cambodia, Dubai and the United Arab Emirates.
“Apart from being trainers, they are also believed to play the role of agents, call centre operators, account managers and scriptwriters, based here and in Kuala Lumpur.
“They were offered a monthly salary of RM3,000 and a 3% commission for each successful fraud. We believe this syndicate started operations recently, and that its members have yet to receive the salary payment as offered,” he told a press conference at the Johor police contingent headquarters today.
The investigation also found that the new workers would have been placed in several bungalow units in the city and Kulai within a month until they were skilled at disguising themselves as enforcement officers, he said.
Following that, Ayob said his team was now tracking down two men, Su Hao Shou, 33, whose last known address was in Taman Stulang, here and Mohamad Khairuddin Syah, 25, whose address was in Taman Damai Jaya, Skudai, believed to be the mastermind of the syndicate.
Meanwhile, on the case of a scam using a fraudulent letter of undertaking to conduct foreign currency exchange transactions using the name of Tunku Mahkota of Johor Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, he said police were tracking down two family members, M. Parameswaran, 64, and P. Kuganathan, 34, whose address was in Taman Silibin, Ipoh, Perak, to facilitate the investigation.
“We have recorded statements from three individuals, but these two men have yet to be traced. Both claimed to have served at the Istana Johor,” he said.
On Oct 10, Ayob was reported to have said that his team had recorded the statement of a woman with the title of “Datuk Seri” and a male lawyer, believed to be involved in the case.
The investigation was conducted following a report lodged by the head of the media unit of the Johor royal press office on Oct 7.
He said the woman claimed to have received a mandate from Tunku Ismail to carry out the exchange of US$200 billion to US$5 trillion into Malaysian ringgit, while the male lawyer was a proxy.