PUTRAJAYA, Oct 6 (Bernama) -- A call centre syndicate believed to be operating a telephone scam operation at a resort in Sungai Lembing, Pahang was crippled after the Malaysian Immigration Department (JIM) detained 98 individuals, including 95 foreigners yesterday.
Immigration director-general Datuk Zakaria Shaaban said the operation, which began at 12.50 pm, was conducted following about a month of intelligence gathering using various technological assets.
He said the 95 foreigners comprised 84 Chinese men and four Chinese women, two Myanmar nationals, and one woman each from Indonesia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia and Russia, aged between 20 and 75.
Three locals, including a man believed to be the resort owner, were also detained.
"The modus operandi we discovered was using an isolated resort as their base of operations to evade the authorities," he told a press conference on the special operation here today.
He said the resort, which had ceased operations in 2025, was rented by the syndicate for RM30,000 a month from June 10 and the premises owner was aware of their activities.
The syndicate was believed to have operated round the clock in shifts, with members given individual KPIs and targets, while local lookouts monitored movements in and out of the resort.
The premises had no electricity supply and the syndicate used a generator, closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed on trees and Starlink internet equipment to avoid detection.
Zakaria said intelligence indicated that the syndicate had operated at the location for about three months and had previously operated in countries including Cambodia and Vietnam, moving between countries to evade detection.
During the operation, JIM seized 49 Chinese passports, passports from Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Russia, an Indonesian Travel Document in Lieu of a Passport, 100 mobile phones, 120 computer sets, a CCTV camera, nine packs of unused SIM cards, RM5,000 cash and 11 sets of Starlink equipment.
He said the call centre was believed to have served as a hub for scam activities targeting the nationals of the syndicate members, despite the operations being conducted outside their respective countries.
"If they are Chinese nationals, we believe they would conduct scam activities targeting Chinese citizens in China," he said.
Zakaria said 45 Chinese nationals, two Myanmar nationals, a Hong Kong national and an Indonesian national were detained under Section 6(1)(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63, while 44 Chinese nationals and a Russian national were detained under Section 15(1)(c) of the same act.
A Chinese man and a Cambodian woman were detained under Regulation 39(b) of the Immigration Regulations 1963, while the two local men and a local woman were detained under Section 56(1)(d) of the Immigration Act 1959/63.
He added that the resort owner had been remanded for up to seven days from yesterday to assist investigations, while all detainees were taken to the Putrajaya Immigration Office for further investigation.
-- BERNAMA