BANGKOK: Thai police rescued a 19-year-old Malaysian woman after she was constantly beaten and forcefully confined in a condominium by a "Macau scam" syndicate headed by a Taiwanese gangster.
The rescue came following information relayed by the Malaysian embassy in Thailand to police who raided the condominium in the Bangna area in the outskirts of the capital on Friday.
They arrested five Malaysians and a 29-year-old Taiwanese man, who is suspected to be the ringleader of the syndicate.
The four Malaysian men and a woman arrested are between 22 and 27 years old.
"The victim alleged that she was deceived to work in Thailand and when she arrived in the Kingdom, she was forced to work as a call-center operator and confined inside the condominium.
"She was also beaten by members of the syndicate," said Thai Tourist Police Bureau (TPB) acting deputy chief Maj Gen Surachet Hakpan, who led the operation.
The victim called the Malaysian embassy in Thailand which then relayed the information to the Thai authorities.
Thai police also confiscated computers, internet routers, SIM cards, mobile phones, telephones, closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras and recording equipment, printers and iPads from the condominium.
Meanwhile, Supt Ridzuan Abdul Aziz from the Malaysian embassy told Bernama that the father of the Malaysian victim met embassy officers several days ago and reported about the suffering endured by his daughter at the hands of the syndicate.
"The father informed that his daughter was deceived (by the syndicate) and was regularly beaten for refusing to be involved with their activities," he said, adding that the daughter managed to called her father to tell him about the bad treatment she received from the syndicate.
She also disclosed information about the syndicate including the address of the condominium she was held in.
The Malaysian embassy then requested the assistance of Thai Police, which led to the raid on the condominium and subsequent arrest of the Taiwanese man as well as the rescuing of the Malaysian victim.
Based on the initial investigations, Ridzuan said, the Malaysians arrested in the raid had been led to believe that they were working for an online sales company in Bangkok.
But to their horror, soon after arriving in the Thai capital they were confined to a condominium with their passports, cash and handphones seized.
They suffered beatings for refusing to work or causing trouble, he said, adding that they were told to call victims in Chinese (language) to offer several fake schemes.
The Thai police, according to Ridzuan, thanked the Malaysian embassy for the information it relayed about the syndicate, which proved that "Macau Scam" syndicates are active in Bangkok.
The term "Macau scam" was coined because it is believed that such scams originated from Macau or that the first victims came from there, but this has never been confirmed.
Macau scams usually start with a phone call from a scammer pretending to be an officer from a bank, government agency or debt collector.
The scammer will then claim that the potential victim owes money or has an unpaid fine, often with a very short window of less than an hour, to settle the payment or face "dire consequences".
Read more at http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/10/28/thai-police-rescue-malaysian-woman-from-taiwan-gangster/#18cZTDE2f3Gtjdy2.99
