KUCHING, April 25 — Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) will seek the assistance of Interpol to detect six Sarawakian men who were cheated by an employment scam to work in Cambodia.

Sarawak police commissioner, Datuk Mohd Azman Ahmad Sapri said the request was made following police reports lodged by family members on the victims, aged between 19 and 39, from Kuching and Padawan.

"Initial investigations showed that they were offered lucrative salaries to work in Cambodia by employment agents.

"The victims went to Cambodia and once in the country, they realised they had been duped when they were forced to do phone scam,” he said at a press conference here today.

The case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code,” he added.

In a separate development, he said a total of 666 fraud cases involving losses totalling RM17.8 million were recorded from January to March this year, compared to 640 cases for the same period last year, involving losses of RM15.3 million.

"It is an increase of 27.45 per cent in cases.

"Police recorded 50 investment scam cases, involving losses of RM2.5 million, impersonation (as officers) scams (85 cases/RM1.8 million), Macau scams (48 cases/RM1.7 million), employment scams (58 cases/RM786,000) and non-existent loans (63 cases/RM419,000),” he added. — Bernama