MALAYSIA : 4 NIGERIANS ARRESTED IN INTERNET/PARCEL SCAM

A report from BERNAMA which is official portal of National News Agency of Malaysia six people have been arrested for internet/parcel scam. Among the six arrested four are from Nigeria. Below is the report from BERNAMA.

GEORGE TOWN, Nov 26 (Bernama) -- The police have crippled two internet-cum-parcel scam syndicates masterminded by foreigners, following the arrest of six people, including four Nigerians, in separate raids here and in Kuala Lumpur.

Of the six, two of them are women. While one is from Indonesia, the other is a local.

The six were detained in Kuala Lumpur, and Relau here on Friday and Saturday.

State Commercial Crime CID chief ACP Azmi Adam said initial investigations revealed the Nigerians entered the country using student visas but were found without personal identification documents when detained by the police.

He said the role of the women was to scout for potential victims via Facebook, apart from providing bank accounts for transactions.

The six suspects were remanded until Dec 4 to facilitate police investigations, he told a press conference here today.

Azmi said the police got their 'break' into the case upon receiving a report from a housewife who claimed to have been duped by a man suspected to belong to a syndicate, of more than RM1 million.

"The woman alleged that through Facebook, she met the man and became his close friend. Subsequently, the man informed her that he had sent her a box of valuables, including cash, but that it had been detained by the Malaysian Customs Department.

"The man then asked the woman to bank in a sum of money into a certain account for use as payment for the customs department to release the goods," he added.

Azmi said the woman made seven transactions in another person's name but received no presents from the man who could not be contacted since then.

He said following the woman's report, the police tracked down the account before nabbing two Nigerian men and two women at a house in Relau on Saturday, seizing various items used by the group of six to dupe unsuspecting women.

"In an inspection of the house, the police seized several equipment used in the scam, including mobile phones, laptops, two units of hard disc and a pen-drive," he said.

In the second case, another housewife in her 30's lost RM6,000 after being duped by a Nigerian man, using similar modus operandi. The man was suspected to belong to another syndicate.

"Investigations revealed the two syndicates were using the same modus operandi in seeking women through Facebook and making sweet promises of love to gain the trust of the victims," noted Azmi.

-- BERNAMA