Malaysia: Perak police hold six over online gambling call centre aimed at Australians, investigated as cheating

Police in the Malaysian state of Perak have arrested six local men over an alleged online gambling call centre that recruited customers in Australia through Telegram and WeChat, used Australian SIM cards and collected payments into Australian bank accounts. The case is being investigated under the Penal Code's cheating and criminal conspiracy provisions, the same approach Kuching police took on the same day with a separate raid on an alleged online gambling scam call centre in Sarawak.

The raid in Kamunting

Perak police chief Datuk Mohd Alwi Zainal Abidin told a press conference at the Perak contingent police headquarters in Ipoh on Friday, 23 October 2026, that officers from the state Commercial Crime Investigation Department and Taiping district police raided a three-storey terrace house in Kamunting, Taiping, at 8.05pm on Tuesday, 20 October. His remarks were carried by the national news agency Bernama and by Sinar Harian, Utusan Malaysia and The Vibes.

Police seized 18 mobile phones, 10 computer monitors, six computer processing units and a router, with an estimated combined value of RM35,000. The six suspects, aged 22 to 31, have no prior criminal records, according to police, and were remanded for four days until 24 October.

How the operation allegedly worked

According to the police chief:

• The group had been operating since July and acted as agents who found customers and promoted online gambling to people in Australia.
• Contact was made through Telegram and WeChat, using profile photos of European women to draw customers in (as reported by Sinar Harian and The Vibes).
• Customers were directed to platforms set up specifically for them, including ones named "one2bet-aus", "roladoll-aus" and "majesty777-aus".
• "Gaming packages" were sold for between A$30 and A$200, paid into Australian bank accounts. The SIM cards in the seized phones were on Australian telecom networks.
• The suspects were paid an estimated RM6,000 to RM10,000 a month.
• They used the rented house's back entrance to come and go without drawing attention.

Utusan Malaysia quoted the police chief as saying that analysis of the seized computers showed the group was running an online gambling fraud targeting Australian nationals. Police refer to the customers as victims. They are still working to establish how many Australians were affected and whether the suspects ran similar operations elsewhere before moving to Perak. Police did not say who owns or operates the platforms, and did not disclose the amounts collected.

Cheating, not gaming law

The six are being investigated under Section 420 (cheating) and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Penal Code, rather than under Malaysia's gambling statutes.

Kuching district police took the same route on 23 October, when they arrested eight foreign men, aged 19 to 38, at a house on Jalan Datuk Tawi Sli that police allege was a call centre for an online gambling scam involving "non-existent gambling games" aimed at victims in neighbouring countries. District police chief ACP Alexson Naga Chabu said in a statement, reported by DayakDaily, that the case is being investigated under Sections 420 and 120B. The court remanded the eight for three days.

The approach differs from a December 2025 case in the same district. When Kuching police arrested 28 people at two flats on Jalan Song over an alleged call centre promoting online gambling to customers in Australia and China, they investigated it under Section 4(1)(g) of the Common Gaming Houses Act 1953 for promoting gambling, along with immigration offences, according to the police statement reported by DayakDaily at the time. Police said at the time that the gaming offence carried up to three years in prison and fines of RM5,000 to RM50,000. Under Section 420 of the Penal Code, as cited by Kuching police this week, cheating carries one to 10 years in prison, whipping and a possible fine.

Police have not explained the choice of charges in either of this week's cases. The legal framing could change once investigations are complete. None of the suspects has been charged in court. The pattern echoes other Southeast Asian enforcement moves that treat cross-border online betting as fraud rather than ordinary gambling — including Cambodia's probe of 28 casinos after reclassifying online betting as cyber fraud and Thailand's Sai Mai raid on an HGA online gambling and scam base.

Why it matters

The Perak case points to small call centres in Malaysia that sell gambling "packages" to customers abroad and collect the money through accounts and SIM cards in the customers' own country. Australia's Interactive Gambling Act 2001 already prohibits offering online casino-style services to people in Australia. In both of this week's Malaysian raids, police have treated these operations as fraud against foreign victims rather than as ordinary illegal gambling. Similar cross-border money channels have also appeared in India, where police recently dismantled a "work-from-home" bank-account racket used to move online betting money.