Police uncover a fraud syndicate targeting the elderly, offering part-time jobs

KUALA LUMPUR: The Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) has successfully detected a fraud syndicate targeting the elderly by offering part-time online jobs as hotel booking agents, said Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (JSJK) Director Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf.

He said his party detected the activities of the syndicate involved who offered jobs through the WhatsApp application through the message ‘Job For Senior’ or ‘Job For Old Timer’ and the victims had to open an account on the website lynxoasis.com to complete their tasks.

“Interested victims will be asked to open an account on the lynxoasis.com website and complete the hotel booking task by using the victim’s money first with a guarantee that it will be returned along with a commission of six to 10 percent depending on the task completed.

“Through the website, the victims will be able to see their commission money increase, but when they want to withdraw money, the syndicate will charge various additional fees thus resulting in greater losses for the victims,” he told reporters here today.

Ramli said that so far his party has received 21 police reports involving fraud cases involving losses of RM752,100.00.

In a separate case, Ramli said his party busted Sabah’s Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) investment fraud syndicate with the arrest of 18 individuals in separate raids in several states on May 4 and 5 last.

He said all the individuals, consisting of 12 men and six women, local citizens aged between 30 and 71, were arrested in operations carried out around Sabah, Perak and Selangor.

Based on the investigation, this syndicate has been operating since 2019 by offering investments supposedly related to Sabah SMEs.

“This syndicate also used the name of the Prime Minister’s Department to convince the victims that the investment was legitimate and used the Whatsapp application as a medium of communication in addition to the face-to-face meetings that were also held with the victims involved.

“This syndicate offers a high return in the form of grants, including through an investment of RM1,000, investors are promised a profit of RM200,000 within three months,” he said.

Ramli said those arrested were believed to be masterminds, moderators and owners of donkey accounts used by the fraud syndicate involved.

He said the victims who were deceived had deposited money through transfers to several donkey accounts belonging to companies and businesses but did not receive any profit as promised.

So far the police have received 15 reports involving a total loss of RM2.98 million related to this case.

He said 28 debit cards of various banks, 24 mobile phone units of various brands, two laptops and a tablet were confiscated and 15 bank accounts with a total value of RM69,796.90 were also seized under Section 50(1) of the AMLATFPUAA 2001.

Seizure under Section 45(2) AMLATFPUAA 2001 was also made against a Toyota Hilux type vehicle estimated to be worth RM75,000.00 in addition to freezing 38 bank accounts (RM108,131.93) under Section 44(1) AMLATFPUAA 2001.

“All the arrested individuals are being remanded until today, tomorrow and the day after. Further investigation under Section 420 of the Penal Code is underway,” he said.