76 Foreigners Detained In Ops Against Internet Scam

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 (Bernama) -- Seventy-six foreigners, most of them Nigerians, were rounded-up by the police in a special operation to curb Internet scam early on Tuesday. The operation, code-named "Ops Tiong", was carried out in Ampang, Sentul and Kepong from 11pm yesterday. It involved 42 officers and 300 members from the Immigration Department, the Higher Education Ministry, Tourism Ministry, the General Operations Force, and the police from the commercial crime investigation and narcotics divisions. Commercial Crime Investigation Department Deputy Director II Mohd. Rodwan Mohd Yusof said the foreigners, comprising 70 Nigerians (67 men and three women), three Cameroon men, two Papua New Guinea men and a Thai woman, whose ages are between 20 and 30s, were arrested following three months of surveillance. "They will be sent for urine test. Those without valid travel documents will be handed over to the Immigration Department for further action," he told reporters after the operation. Mohd Rodwan said the participation of the Higher Education Ministry was to verify on the status of those who entered the country on a student visa. "This is because we receive information that there are foreigners who register as students, but are involved in activities to cheat and deceive Malaysians through the Internet," he added. He said that between January and October this year, a total of 740 people had been detained for involvement in Internet scam, where 187 of them were from the African countries, 535 from Asean countries and the others, from other countries. -- BERNAMA Malaysia