MELAKA, Nov 22 — Police smashed a job scam syndicate when they arrested 17 suspects manning a calling centre at a bungalow in Ayer Keroh here early today.

Melaka police chief Datuk Zainol Samah said the syndicate targeted British nationals by offering non-existent part-time jobs on the https://thesapbusiness-uk.com/#/ website.

He said the suspects, including the 35-year-old supervisor of the calling centre, were nabbed during a raid at 12.23am.

"The 13 local men and one local woman, and three foreign men, aged between 17 and 40, were then busy running the operation centre,” he told a press conference here today.

Police also seized various assets and equipment, including 18 computer sets, 60 mobile phones and two vehicles worth more than RM100,000.

According to him, the syndicate is believed to have been operating from the bungalow since September this year.

"Early investigations show that the syndicate used prepaid telephone numbers from Britain to randomly send short messages in English with offers of non-existent part-time jobs to people in that country,” he said.

Zainol said the syndicate communicated with its victims via the Telegram and WhatsApp applications.

After registering at the website, the victims were then given good job ratings on a fake website provided by the syndicate, with a commission of 0.35 USDT in cryptocurrency awarded for each "rating”.

"Victims who were interested in continuing with the duty were required to deposit an amount of money to get the promised commission. They only realised they had been cheated after failing to get the commission.

"The 17 suspects were paid a monthly salary of RM4,000 each, apart from a 10 per cent commission from the amount scammed from victims,” he said.

He said five of the suspects had criminal records of involvement in cheating cases.

All the suspects have been remanded for four days beginning today for investigation under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating and Section 120B for criminal conspiracy.

He said this ring was believed linked to an online scam syndicate crippled by the Immigration Department in Langkawi, Kedah early this year.

He said Melaka police had received reports on 198 cheating cases involving losses totalling RM3.98 million in connection with offers of non-existent jobs in the state so far this year. — Bernama