45 Foreign Scammers Busted in Melaka Luxury Homes

A large scale police operation in Melaka has laid bare the structured, corporate-like workings of modern scam syndicates operating within Malaysia, following the arrest of 45 foreign nationals in simultaneous raids on two luxury residential properties in the Taman Kota Bendahari area on April 23.

Melaka police chief Deputy Commissioner Datuk Dzulkhairi Mukhtar confirmed the details of the operation at a press conference on April 28, describing how coordinated raids on two separate luxury homes uncovered two distinct but geographically proximate scam operations, each running different fraud schemes and targeting victims in different countries.

The first property yielded 21 arrests, comprising 20 Chinese nationals and one Indonesian woman. Officers seized three laptops, 62 mobile phones, a modem and router set, 18 scam scripts, and eight passports. Analysis of the seized devices and materials revealed that this syndicate was using the DingTalk messaging application to offer fraudulent sexual services to victims in China, a form of advance payment scam in which victims pay upfront for services that are never delivered.

The second property proved to be the base for an operation of even greater scale and sophistication. Police arrested 27 suspects there, comprising 23 Vietnamese nationals and one Chinese national, and seized 21 desktop computers with full monitor and keyboard setups, 23 mobile phones, two modems, and 24 passports. This syndicate was running love scams and fake cryptocurrency investment schemes through the Rakuten Viber application. Victims would first be cultivated through romantic manipulation before being persuaded to invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency platforms.

The financial structure of this second syndicate offers a sobering glimpse into how professionally these criminal operations are now run. Operators working the phones and screens were paid monthly salaries ranging from RM2,500 to RM5,000, while supervisors overseeing the operation earned up to RM6,000 per month. On top of these base salaries, team members were entitled to performance commissions of between RM500 and RM2,000 for each victim successfully defrauded.

All 45 individuals arrested were aged between 20 and 44. Investigations indicate both syndicates commenced operations in January 2026, and police are still working to determine whether the two groups are connected, given that they were housed in properties within the same residential neighbourhood.

DCP Dzulkhairi noted that the trend in Melaka is becoming increasingly serious. In the first four months of 2026 alone, the state police have conducted nine raids on call centre related criminal operations and arrested 82 individuals. By contrast, the whole of 2025 saw only eight raids and 41 arrests, meaning the pace of activity in 2026 has already more than doubled year on year.

The scale and professionalism of these operations serve as a powerful reminder that scam syndicates are not disorganised criminals working alone. They are structured enterprises with payrolls, management hierarchies, scripts, and performance incentives, designed to maximise the volume and value of fraud they can carry out. Understanding this reality is essential for the public when evaluating the types of approaches they encounter online.