Two Telecommunication employees and a chief technology officer (CTO) have been remanded in connection with bribes worth millions of ringgit tied to a SMS scam syndicate.
Two of the suspects, the CTO and a Telco employee, aged 39 and 47 were arrested around 2.30pm and 5.14pm at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) headquarters on Wednesday (November 11) when they were called in to have their statement recorded. They will be remanded for five days.
According to sources, the two were believed to have given and accepted bribes to secure information and personal data belonging to the telecommunication company’s prepaid customers, TheStar reported.
It is learnt that the phone numbers were used by the “content provider” company to charge customers via SMS without their knowledge or permission.
The other suspect, a Telco employee aged 49-year-old will be under remand for five days until November 15 in connection with the case. Sources of TheStar said the suspect was believed to have accepted RM300,000 in stages from a company in return for a list of the Telco company’s customer base under its prepaid plan from 2017. It is learnt that the phone numbers were used by the content provider company to charge customers via SMS without their knowledge or permission.
The name of the Telecommunication firm and companies were not disclosed.
On Tuesday, the MACC also remanded three company directors for five days on suspicion of giving bribes worth millions of ringgit as part of a SMS scam syndicate. Two of the directors are said to be “Datuks”. The three are said to be directors of different companies and have apparently been giving bribes to telecommunication companies to gain access to customers’ phone numbers.
The latest arrest brings the number of individuals being investigated over the scam to six.
Similarly in July 2020, seven individuals from 3 Telecommunication companies are under investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for allegedly accepting bribes to reveal personal data of Telco customers in the country. It is not known if the cases are related to the latest investigation by MACC.
