CHIAYI, Taiwan: Two Malaysians working as runners for scam syndicates are jailed seven months and a year respectively by a district court in Chiayi, Taiwan.

An 18-year-old Malaysian surnamed Chen, was sentenced to seven months’ jail.

Recruited in Malaysia last July, Chen joined the syndicate in Taiwan and flew to Taiwan to collect cash for the syndicate.

The syndicate ran share investment advertisements on Facebook to attract investors.

A man, also surnamed Chen from Chiayi, was misled into investing, handing over cash to the syndicate on several occasions.

The investor from Chiayi lodged a police report after discovering that the investment was a scam.

Working with the police, the investor continued to hand over cash to the syndicate, where the Malaysian runner Chen had been instructed to collect NT$2.2 million (RM300,000) cash for share investment.

The Malaysian was arrested by the police on the spot.

Another 40-year-old Malaysian man visited Taiwan as a backpacker last November.

He went for a job interview for a high-pay job featured on Facebook during his stay in Taiwan.

He was arrested by the police while collecting NT$1 million (RM137,000) from a local man who had lodged a police report after being duped by a syndicate to invest several millions.

It was reported that scam syndicates in Taiwan have lured people from Southeast Asia to work as runners collecting cash for the syndicate.

The runners could then leave Taiwan to evade arrest by the Taiwanese police.