KUCHING – A total of 326 Malaysians who were victims of overseas job syndicates have been rescued, from 2021 to February 23 this year, according to Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department deputy director (Investigation/Legal), Datuk Rusdi Mohd Isa.
He said that the remaining 133 victims were still stranded in foreign countries, as of February 23.
“During the same period, the police received 354 reports of job scams, involving a total of 459 victims.
“Most cases involved job scams in Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Laos. Based on a study, 73% of the victims ended up working as scammers, 12% in customer service, 8% in casinos and 7% as cooks or other jobs,” he said.
He was speaking to reporters after the 2024 Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants (Atipsom) Act 2007 Enforcement Course for Sabah and Sarawak Zone, here today.
He added that one of the main factors which drove victims to work abroad is the lure of lucrative salaries for those who have lost their sources of income.
“The current trend is for these victims to be influenced and deceived by job adverts on social (media) sites, such as Facebook.
“Initially, victims were offered jobs as customer service officers at investment companies or licensed casinos, and some were also offered jobs at holiday resorts.
“Then, when they arrived in the target countries, they were forced to work as scammers, for example by scamming people online for non-existent investments, and also love scams,” he added. – March 1, 2024