Tearful reunion: Syafinaz (left) being greeted by her sister Syafirah upon arriving at KLIA. — LOW BOON TAT/The Star
SEPANG: A hundred squats, delayed meals and even rape threats were the punishments that victims of a job scam syndicate in Myanmar faced if they failed to hit their daily target even after working 16 hours trying to con other people.
Syafinaz Abdullah, 19, from Johor, one of the three job scam victims to return to Malaysia yesterday, said she and her friend Muhammad Hafiz Mazlan, 26, were lured by an offer of a purported foreign exchange marketing job.
They only realised much later that their actual job was to carry out scam activities via fraudulent smartphone apps.
“Food would be delayed if we could not hit our target,” she told reporters after arriving at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) yesterday.
Syafinaz said they were deprived of sleep as they had to work from morning until midnight, and were cut off from the outside world.
“Our phones were seized as soon as we got there. When we left, we were not paid our salaries and could not get our phones back.”
Syafinaz and Muhammad Hafiz were rescued from the Myanmar border town of Myawaddy with the assistance of the Thai army and brought to Thailand via the land border.
A third victim, Sim Yong Fei, 33, escaped to Thailand and was held at the Immigration Detention Centre before being sent back to Malaysia.
The three arrived at KLIA from Bangkok accompanied by Teruntum assemblyman Sim Chon Siang, who funded the rescue mission with monetary contributions and aid from several parties.
According to Syafinaz, the scam activities were conducted via smartphone apps, and included maid and cleaning services. Tearing up, she said she had been ridden by fear over the punishment threats.
“We were threatened with having to eat pork or rat and women were subject to rape threats,” she said, thanking those who brought her home.
Recalling how they got snared, Muhammad Hafiz said the two of them were taken by a car to Myawaddy via Thailand, adding that it was already too late by the time they realised something was amiss.
“We went to Thailand via Golok near Kelantan,” he said, adding that they were promised a RM4,000 monthly salary.
Syafinaz later had a tearful reunion with her sister Syafirah, 16, and her aunt Saloma, 41, who has been caring for the two siblings since the death of their parents.
Muhammad Hafiz’s sister, Fiya, 30, said the family did not know that her brother had gone to Myanmar until one Victor Wong, who is known to be the middleman for the rescue and repatriation of Malaysian victims in that country, told them.
Her brother, who hails from Terengganu and used to work in a factory in Johor, had asked their mother to mail his passport to him last year, said Fiya.
Chon Siang said he was working with Wong to help more victims, adding that the entire rescue process took about 12 days.
Advising parents and potential jobseekers to be cautious of scams, he said two more victims would be rescued and repatriated soon.
