MIRI: Job seekers have been reminded not to believe and response to any social media advertisement promising good pay by unscrupulous parties.
“Anything very attractive or sounds too good, we must always be extra cautious and do not get trapped,” said Minister of Transport Sarawak Datuk Seri Lee Kim Shin on Saturday.
His text of speech was read out by Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Senadin branch secretary Cr Jeffery Phang.
Phang was representing Lee at the launching of Cybersecurity and community awareness held at Sarawak Pustaka Miri branch.
Some 100 secondary students also attended at the one day seminar which was initiated by Miri Entrepreneur Incubator Club or MEIC.
“My Senadin Service Centre had received a few cases last year and this year which we look up with the relevant authorities. I must say that they were not easy to resolve as the victims normally could not reveal their actual location and contact our Malaysian foreign office. had in fact taken up a number of cases through our embassies in the countries concerned,” Lee disclosed.
“If it’s too good to be true, something’s wrong to not believe it…quite a number of people conned to work in countries like Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand believing in social media job advertisements of lucrative pay,” he said
Lee said, job seekers were lured and trapped into slavery and became prey of human traffickers running job scams
“They were held prisoners and forced to work in online scam centres carrying out online criminal activities such as love scams, money laundering, illegal gambling, crypto fraud. They have to work obediently, not try to escape or they will be taken to the torture room. If they do not meet their scams target, they would be starved, beaten, electrocuted and repeatedly sold to scam countries,” he said.
Lee disclosed that scammers normally targeted teenagers and young people.
“They also look for educated, computer literate and able to speak more than one regional language. If they want to leave, they have to pay off ‘debts’, often a big sum. I know of a few cases in Miri here whose parents told me they have to pay between RM60,000 to about RM100,000 and some between US 10,000 to US 20,000 in ordwr to redeem back their children,” he pointed out.
Also present was MEIC’s sec-general Kho Yap Hong.
