A syndicate comprised of Taiwanese and Chinese nationals, who extorted money from their fellow Chinese by posing as bank representatives, was nabbed on Thursday in Kuala Lumpur's Klang Valley area in Malaysia. 

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A raid conducted by the Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) around Klang Valley proved fruitful as they arrested 44 members of the syndicate, according to Deputy Supt. Hong Ken Hock. 

"We raided a three-storey bungalow in Taman Duta and other simultaneous raids around Klang Valley after the department received a tip-off from authorities in the Jiangsu province recently," Hock said.

Those taken into police custody included seven male and 15 female Chinese, and 16 male and six female Taiwanese aged between 20 to 40 years old. 

The group has been reportedly operating from the bungalow for three months. 

"Initial investigations revealed that they would pose as officers from the national bank in China and instruct their victims to settle their so-called debts with the bank," Hock said. 

More than 100 Chinese in the eastern province of Jiangsu have been victimized. The group would even send the victims letters from "court" that would make them believable. The scam has already extorted approximately ¥3.5 million ($530,000). 

The suspects would also contact the victims through social media and offer them gifts.

"They would ask their victims to claim the gifts, but they were asked to pay certain Customs tax and duty for the gifts,"  Hock said. "This scam has even caused dispute among the victims' family members. One person was cheated of ¥1 million ($150,000)."

Further investigations are being held to find out other accomplices. 

Tagssyndicate, scam, Chinese scam, Jiangsu province, Kuala Lumpur