21 senior citizens fall victim to scam offering jobs as hotel booking agents

PETALING JAYA: Police have exposed a syndicate luring senior citizens with part-time online jobs as hotel booking agents.

Bukit Aman commercial crime investigation department director Ramli Yoosuf said the syndicate uses WhatsApp and advertises “jobs for seniors” or “jobs for old timers”, Bernama reported.

Applicants need to open an account on the lynxoasis.com website to complete the task and also complete the hotel booking tasks given to them.

The syndicate requires the victims to put up their money first, with the guarantee that it will be returned along with a commission of 6-10%, depending on the task completed.

Ramli said victims were able to see their “commission” increase on the website. However, when they wanted to withdraw their money, the syndicate will levy additional fees, resulting in losses to the victims, he said.

Ramli said police had received 21 reports from senior citizens and they lost a total of RM752,100.

In a separate case, Ramli said police busted an investment fraud syndicate targeting Sabah’s small and medium enterprises, using the Prime Minister’s Department to convince victims.

Police have arrested 12 men and six women, all Malaysians, in separate raids in Sabah, Perak and Selangor from May 4-5.

The syndicate had been operating since 2019. They communicated through WhatsApp in addition to face-to-face meetings with the victims.

“This syndicate offered high returns in the form of grants, including through a start-up investment of RM1,000, where investors were promised a profit of RM200,000 within three months,” he said.

Ramli said 15 reports involving a total loss of RM2.98 million had been received. Police seized 28 bank debit cards, 24 mobile phones, two laptops and a tablet.

A total of 53 bank accounts totalling RM177,927 have been frozen. A car has also been seized.