KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 4 — After losing his job at a restaurant due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Anthony, 26, could not resist a job offer as a gold seller abroad with a lucrative salary of up to RM10,000 per month.
Anthony said after he was interviewed for the position that was advertised on Facebook, he stayed in a hotel in Kajang for nine days before leaving for Thailand via the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
“But after two days staying at a hotel in Mae Sot, Thailand, I realised that I had been deceived by the syndicate and asked to return to Malaysia,” he said, adding that the employer forced him to pay the expenses including flight ticket, medical check-up and passport renewal totalling RM3,268.88 and threatened to set my family’s home on fire.
He told this to reporters at a media conference, here, today. Seputeh MP Teresa Kok Suh Sim was also in attendance.
According to Anthony, because he did not have the money to pay, the employer sent him to work at KK Garden in Myanmar from April to November last year as a love scammer.
He was then sold to a love scam syndicate in Laukkaing, Myanmar, masterminded by Chinese nationals who beat him 50 times for failing to hit the daily target.
Anthony managed to escape the syndicate but was detained by the authorities in Myanmar.
“I contacted my sister in Malaysia on Nov 5 to inform her of my situation and asked her to get me out of there,” he said.
Anthony’s sister, Serena, who was at the media conference, said she lodged a police report at the Kuantan District Police Headquarters the next day, adding she sought help from other MPs to help her bring Anthony home.
Meanwhile, Kok thanked the governments of Malaysia and China, especially the Foreign Ministry, for rescuing the job scam victims and bringing them home.
On Dec 1, 121 Malaysians aged between 20 and 50, mostly victims of job scams stranded in Laukkaing in northern Myanmar following unrest in the region, were evacuated and brought home.
— Bernama
