PETALING JAYA: A young Malaysian is relieved that he is one of the 16 rescued by the Cambodian police from a syndicate forcing him to work as scammer.

The 26-year-old from Johor Bahru, who declined to be named, told Sin Chew Daily he was grateful to be able to return home after six nightmarish months in Cambodia.

The Malaysian was working as a graphic designer in Singapore before he quit the job to come back to Malaysia due to the implementation of movement control order to curb the Covid-19 pandemic.

The only son in the family, he was unable to find a job in the country until he saw a recruitment advertisement on WhatsApp on 14 October last year to work at a casino in Cambodia.

Together with a friend who was also interested in the job, both attended an interview conducted by a Malaysian man inside a car repair workshop in Subang Jaya.

“The interviewer, the owner of the workshop, claimed that he was helping a friend to recruit staff for a casino in Cambodia,” he said.

Apart from showing them the job scope, the interviewer also promised them a salary of US$1,700 (RM7,100) a month, a twin-sharing seafront hostel room, eight hours of work a day with annual and sick leaves, he added.

“The job tenure is only six months. But if one does not leave after six months, the company would pay one-off subsidy of between RM3,000 and RM5,000,” he explained.

To convince them, the interviewer showed photographs of the work place and hostel.

As he had friends working at casinos in Dubai and the Philippines, they took up the offer.

“We handed over our passports for the application of our work permits and signed a recruitment letter written in Chinese,” he said.

He left for Phnom Penh on 20 October as public relations officer as stated in the visa.

“After seven days of quarantine, I was taken to a building surrounded by barb wires with four security guards. My passport was taken away to process work permit.

“I was given a room of seven people. The twin-sharing seafront room was said to be full,” he said.

His nightmare started with one week of training to identify targets to lure them for money. He learned the skills to cheat.

The syndicate, operated by Chinese nationals in Cambodia, was located inside a 16-storey building with shops, hostels, gymnasium, hair saloon, canteen, restaurant, bar and others. The building is surrounded by barb wires.

“I was arranged to target people from the United States, in particular California. There are divisions in charge of different areas such as Southeast Asia, Europe and others.

Besides Chinese nationals, there were also Malaysians working for the syndicate for some time and they were promoted due to good performance, he said.

He only received a salary of RM1,000 instead of RM7,000, he said, adding that his salary would be deducted for any mistake committed.
Food provided by the syndicate was bad, dishes were mainly pig intestines.

Goods sold in the shop within the building surrounded by barbed wires were three to five times higher than market prices.

One ended up spending the salary in restaurant within two weeks, he said.

Instead of working eight hours, it was 12 hours per day and one had to hit the target of US$30,000 or be forced to work extra hours until the target was met.

Each person was given 10 sets of smartphones to source for targets through social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and others.

“We disguise ourselves as female online shoppers to chat with a maximum of 20 men. After gaining their trust, we persuade them to open a crypto account and lure them to invest in our platform,” he revealed.

The investors initially would make some profits in their investments, he said, adding that when the investment sum increased, supervisors would access the investors’ wealth to persuade them to invest with no return.

Some lost their entire wealth in a single investment. Some sold their homes, cars or even took up loans to invest, he said.

It was reported that 16 Malaysians who were held against their will in Cambodia were rescued by the Cambodian police last week.

Bukit Aman criminal investigation department director Abd Jalil Hassan said in a statement that 15 men and one woman had been duped by advertisements offering jobs as customer service officers in Cambodia.

Their travel documents were seized and their movements were tightly controlled upon their arrival in Cambodia.

Initial police investigations found that the victims were forced to work as scammers, Abd Jalil said.