Commercial CID director Amar Singh Ishar Singh said the suspects comprised 17 men and 27 women, aged between 21 and 27, with more than five cyber crime police reports lodged against each of them.

“The operation was conducted simultaneously nationwide targeting account owners receiving more than five police reports in various fraud rings. such as Macau Scam, African Scam and E-Financial Fraud.

“Most of the account owners apprehended were women who acted as intermediaries to scammers in 319 cyber crime investigation papers, involving losses amounting to RM17.29 million,” he said at a media conference at Bukit Aman here today.

According to Amar, money mules are people who allow their bank accounts to be used by cyber criminals to facilitate the transfer of money from scam activities.

He said most cyber crime masterminds were foreigners who needed locals to act as intermediaries to transfer the scammed money to the operators’ accounts in foreign countries.

“Some of these money mules were offered part of the scammed money or rewarded with expensive items.”

Some had become unsuspecting money mules after falling victim to internet love scams.

Amar said all suspects would be charged in court under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.