Federal police have busted a major SMS scam ring that has been duping people using big corporation names since 2006 with the arrest of 26 people at two premises in Tawau, Sabah, last week.
Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Koh Hong Sun, said the syndicate was believed to be responsible for 2,656 cases nationwide with losses amounting to RM6.4 million.
He said of those nabbed included two women. Only one of the women was a local while the rest were foreigners. Koh, however, declined to reveal the other nationalities involved.
The 26 arrested, aged between 16 and 41 years, are currently under remand.
Among items seized from the suspects were four laptops, hand phones, ATM cards and RM6,000 in cash.
It is believed that the syndicate would send out 4,000 SMSes daily from the laptops to random numbers informing the receiver that they had won a contest. The ‘winner’ would then need to send his account number for the ‘prize money’ to be banked in. The syndicate also asked the victim to send in their PIN numbers.
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