Police in Malaysia have bust an illegal syndicate targeting lonely hearts in the US to lose money on online betting sites. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Police in Malaysia have bust a fake online romance syndicate that groomed lonely hearts in the US before directing them to gambling sites.

police arrested eleven men and one woman

Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department Director Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf stated police arrested eleven men and one woman at a Kuala Lumpur residential address on May 16, reported the Selangor Journal on Monday.

Director Ramli said the property raided by police doubled as the scamming ring’s call center. The CCID chief said the illegal operation had been running since April, with its employees creating fake Instagram and Facebook accounts for the purpose of befriending users based in the US.

These handlers would sweet-talk the lonely hearts and direct them to online gambling sites, “leading them to lose all the money they placed as bets.”

Ramli added the handlers arrested were the romance call center’s agents, with the operator paying them a monthly salary of RM2,500 ($531). He said the syndicate also paid the agents “a 4% commission from the total losses suffered by the victims.”

While Malaysian police confiscated foreign currencies, luxury jewelry, nine laptops, and 33 mobile phones, the bust pales in comparison to that of their counterparts in the Philippines. In April, Philippines police freed over 1,000 people kidnapped by human traffickers and forced into faking online romances.