Malaysia International Humanitarian Organisation (MHO) said based on its experience, some of the Malaysians who were “rescued” abroad were “wolves in sheep’s clothing”.

“We found out that some of these ‘victims’ had transferred up to RM10,000 to their families in Malaysia every month. So we don’t think they are actual victims,” MHO secretary-general Hishamuddin Hashim told FMT.

Hishamuddin said that generally, there were three categories of people involved in job scams.

First are the actual victims, who had been duped into taking fake jobs abroad and later prevented from leaving.

The second group are those who willingly work as scammers, and the third group are the syndicates themselves who also recruit the victims.

Posing as victims during a raid is one reason why these syndicate members escape arrest, he said.

Hishamuddin was elaborating on fellow member Daniel Khoo’s suggestion for these imposters to be charged for their involvement in such scams.

He said the authorities should vet the victims once they are rescued.

“We can’t charge them as the crime took place outside of our jurisdiction, but maybe we can work with the immigration department to blacklist them,” he said.

“Bukit Aman’s anti-trafficking in persons and anti-smuggling of migrants unit could also help with screening the victims.”

Last year, home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail told the Dewan Rakyat that some Malaysians who were “rescued” from overseas job scams had gone abroad with the intention of becoming scammers.

In November, MHO claimed that there were close to 2,000 Malaysians believed to be job scam victims stuck in neighbouring countries since last year.

From that figure, 1,200 are believed to be held in several districts in Myanmar, while hundreds more are in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines.

During the same month, deputy foreign minister Mohamad Alamin also said that according to the ministry’s data, authorities had rescued 518 victims and were tracing 186 others.