KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 26 — The police arrested 13 individuals, including a civil servant, on suspicion of being involved in land title transfer fraud activities.
Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said seven men and six women, aged 26 to 59, were arrested following a police report lodged by an assistant district officer earlier this month.
“The assistant district officer said several suspicious land title transfers were occurring illegally, as well as the loss of several documents involving land transfer forms from the safe," he said during a press conference at the Bukit Aman CCID office today.
The investigation found that a syndicate and cartel in the land office was carrying out illegal land title transfers, believed to be conducted by exploiting the system by deleting and erasing important transfer records.
Ramli added that among the suspects detained was a staff of the district and land office, but he declined to elaborate further as the case is under investigation.
So far, six illegal land transfer transactions, involving six identified plots of land in the case, have been investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code.
In a separate case, a 65-year-old senior citizen over RM1.1 million after falling victim to a syndicate of phone scammers yesterday.
The victim, a retiree, lodged a report in Penang after receiving a call from an Islamic financial institution on October 18, claiming that his account was involved in money laundering activities.
"The victim was then contacted by an individual from the Ampang police station, who allegedly would conduct an investigation on the complainant and the victim was reminded not to disclose the investigation to others or else the victim would be detained.
"The victim was also instructed to report to 'Madam Suraya' five times a day, who was supposedly a prosecutor," Ramli said.
The victim was then instructed to open a new account and transfer all his money to that account, as well as provide the banking details to the syndicate.
An investigation found that the money from the victim's newly opened bank account had been transferred to several unidentified banks through 60 different transactions.
He said the victim realised he had been cheated when recounting the incident, and that the case is being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code.
Ramli also urged children to advise their parents, uncles, aunts, relatives, and friends, especially the elderly about such scams and to make it a part of their conversation agenda so they will be aware and alert when they receive such calls.
— Bernama
