KUALA LUMPUR: Four Taiwanese men wanted in their home country for organised crime and fraud have been arrested for trying to set up a scam call centre here.
Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Comm Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said they were caught with three local men and a local woman following raids on two premises in Kuala Lumpur on Jan 30.
"These arrests were made thanks to our cooperation with the Taiwanese police.
"We were on alert for several days before they entered the country," he told reporters here on Friday (Feb 16).
He said all the suspects, aged between 31 and 44, are suspected of trying to establish a fraud call centre hub in Malaysia.
"We also confiscated items including 12 mobile phones, a set of documents, three passports, two access cards as well as two cars.
The four Taiwanese men were handed over to the Immigration Department for further action, he said.
Meanwhile Comm Ramli said his department recorded total losses to scams of RM558.6mil in the first six weeks of this year, compared to RM181.6mil during the same period last year.
"The number of cases also saw an increase with 4,741 cases recorded during this period compared to 3,530 cases last year.
"While cases increased by 34.3%, the amount of losses has seen a drastic increase of 207.6%," he said.
Comm Ramli said as of Sunday (Feb 11), a total of 2,065 investigation papers resulted in prosecutions, against 1,736 in the same period last year.
