KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 30 — More than half of the 284 Malaysians reported as victims of overseas job scams are still abroad, police secretary Datuk Noorsiah Mohd Saaduddin disclosed today.

She said that police have received 224 reports from family members and friends of the scammed victims from 2021 up to this month.

"Out of that, 110 victims have been brought back to Malaysia while the remaining 174 are still stuck,” she said in a statement.

She gave an assurance that Bukit Aman will continue to use all channels and work with external agencies like Aseanpol and Interpol to extinguish these job scam syndicates.

She added that the police are part of a special committee headed by the Home Ministry.

She also reminded Malaysians to be wary of online job recruitment agencies and verify the companies with the Home Ministry before accepting job offers, especially those that are based overseas.

Malaysia is among several countries whose citizens have been lured by offers of lucrative jobs abroad in the post-Covid global market, only to find themselves turned into modern-day slaves and subject to beatings and death threats if they refuse the syndicates’ demands.

The government set up the special committee after one of the Malaysian victims, 23-year-old Goi Zhen Feng from Ipoh, Perak was found to have died in a Thai hospital last April near the Myanmar border from severe injuries suspected to have been inflicted by the scammers.

Goi’s family from had filed a missing person report with the police, who eventually traced his location to a fake name "Mun Jun Hong” based on fake passport information.

Lawmakers and other non-governmental organisations have demanded Putrajaya to step up action against the human traffickers.

Putrajaya has expressed its commitment to ensuring the return of all its citizens and was making an effort through all channels available to them, after a memorandum was sent to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to seek the government’s assistance and intervention in the job scam issue abroad with Malaysians as the victims were sent in by a group of NGOs.