Tebrau Bungalows Housed Fake Law Firm Scam Targeting Four Countries

(Johor, July 28) — Alongside the larger Forest City operation, the recent Forest City scam bust also exposed a second scam network hidden within five bungalows in Tebrau, where suspects posed as a law firm to defraud victims across four different countries.

Police arrested 56 individuals at the Tebrau site, including 54 Chinese nationals and two Malaysians who assisted with property rentals and logistical support. The group combined fake legal services with investment and cryptocurrency fraud, deliberately assigning each of the five bungalows to target victims from a specific country — China, Japan, Australia or the United States.

This division of labour, according to investigators, points to a carefully planned operation rather than an improvised setup, with different teams likely trained to handle victims from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds to increase the scam's success rate.

Unlike the Forest City site, where the entire building was leased under one company, the five Tebrau bungalows were rented separately by different individuals, each of whom is now under investigation by police seeking to establish the source of funding and the broader organisational structure behind the operation.

Investigators recovered close to a thousand computers and mobile phones from the Tebrau location alone, valued at more than RM1 million — a haul that, combined with the Forest City seizure, brought the total number of devices recovered across both sites to 313 computers and 1,557 phones.

Two Malaysians arrested at the site are believed to have played a supporting role, helping the predominantly foreign syndicate secure housing and handle day-to-day logistics, allowing the group to operate discreetly within a residential neighbourhood for an extended period.

Johor police chief Datuk Rahman said the case underlines how international scam syndicates continue to exploit upscale residential properties as cover for their operations, and reiterated that Malaysia will not be allowed to become a base for such activity. Investigations into the Tebrau bungalow owners and their possible links to the Forest City operation remain ongoing.