Overview
- Johor police carried out integrated raids on July 15 that dismantled two organised scam syndicates and led to the arrest of 335 people across 27 apartment units and five bungalows in Forest City.
- Authorities said the detainees were mainly foreign nationals — reported as 309 Chinese, 19 Indonesians, four Myanmar nationals and a handful of Malaysians — many of whom could not produce valid travel documents.
- Investigators found the groups ran call-centre style online frauds, including fake cryptocurrency investments, romance scams and impersonation schemes, using Telegram, WhatsApp and TikTok to target victims in China, Indonesia, Japan, the United States and Europe.
- Police seized about 1,900 electronic devices, including roughly 313 desktop computers and 1,557 mobile phones, with total seizures estimated at about RM1 million.
- Authorities are preparing dozens of charges (reports cite between 159 and 194 expected to be charged), say they are tracking a suspected mastermind with Interpol assistance, and Forest City’s developer has pledged full cooperation and backed a proposal for a permanent police station.