KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 — More than 50 Malaysians are being held captive in Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand by online scam syndicates, according to the MCA public services and complaints department.

The department’s head, Datuk Seri Michael Chong, said it had received calls from some of the victims the past two months asking to be rescued from captivity.

He said the victims had been deceived with offers to work as telemarketers with salaries of US$3,000 (RM12,655) to US$4,000 per month.

"We are working together with the embassies and Royal Malaysia Police to rescue those victims. We also appeal to young people to be more careful and not be easily cheated and blinded by the high salary that the syndicates offer,” he said at a press conference here today.

They are believed to be in the hands of the syndicates for between two and six months already.

During the press conference, Chong also made video calls to two men who claimed that they were being held against their will by a syndicate in Cambodia.

One of them, who wants to remain anonymous, said there were 13 Malaysians including five women, aged between 17 and 36, in the same area as him who were forced to work as "scam operators”.

"We were told to scam our customers, and if we could not do that, we would be confined in a room without food for two or three days,” he said.

The other victim claimed that he was with a different group of about 50 Malaysians including a woman, also in Cambodia.

He said they were taken to Cambodia by flight or through illegal land routes.

"We work more than 15 hours (daily) to cheat customers around the world. We must follow instructions or we will never know our fate,” the victim said. — Bernama