SCAM syndicates are exploiting Johor Baru’s booming high-rise property market to conceal their operations, using luxury apartments as bases to target victims overseas, police have revealed.
The syndicates’ victims include wealthy individuals with an interest in stock investments as well as ordinary job seekers, all of whom are believed to be based abroad, mainly in China, Denmark and Poland.
Police uncovered the operations after raiding four luxury apartments in the city over the past few days, leading to the arrest of 14 people, including five Malaysians.
Dozens of mobile phones, routers, lists of names and other items valued at more than RM100,000 were seized from the premises.
“Two of the apartments were used as centres to offer stock picks and other investments to wealthy people abroad,” a police official said.
“The syndicate entices them with promises of 100% returns,” the official added, noting that the other two apartments were used to carry out job scams.
At press time, the Commercial Crime Investigation Department was still investigating whether all four premises were linked to a single syndicate.
The official said police had, in separate operations, raided more than a dozen apartments and arrested more than 80 foreigners involved in scamming victims in China, Myanmar and other countries.
“The strange part is that most of the suspects did not have their passports with them. Syndicate leaders kept them,” the official said.
“Some syndicate members were paid RM6,000 a month, excluding commissions.”
All the cases are being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating. The officer advised the public to use the SemakMule mobile application or visit https:/semakmule.rmp.gov.my to check whether bank accounts or phone numbers are linked to suspicious activities.
He also urged members of the public who notice suspicious foreign nationals staying in apartments to contact the police hotline at 07-221 2999.
In an unrelated case, two caterers were cheated of RM8,800 after being offered food supply jobs purportedly under the name of the Johor police contingent headquarters.
Johor police chief Comm Datuk Ab Rahaman Arsad said the victims, a 51-year-old local man and a 35-year-old local woman, suffered losses of RM3,800 and RM5,000 respectively.
“In both incidents, the victims received phone calls via WhatsApp from individuals claiming to be from the state police headquarters and seeking their services to supply food for events scheduled on Jan 26,” he said.
“They were also asked to sponsor goodies and were directed to liaise with suppliers appointed by the suspects,” he added.
Comm Ab Rahaman said both victims believed the offers were genuine after being shown official-looking government documents.
“They prepared packed food and made payments for the goodies to the bank accounts provided by the suspects.
“Both of them realised they had been scammed when they arrived at the police headquarters and were informed that no such order had been made, and the suspects could not be contacted.
“The documents provided by the suspects are fake and were not issued by our office,” he said.
He urged the public to verify such offers through official channels before committing to any business arrangements. - January 29, 2026
