KUALA LUMPUR: Police have arrested three men from Sierra Leone for their suspected involvement in a counterfeit money scam.
The trio, aged between 20 and 30, were nabbed in a raid at a condominium in the city centre on Oct 2.
Police said the men were believed to have bought 10,000 forged US dollar bills on TikTok for RM6.97.
They then tried selling off the fake notes as genuine ones for RM1,000.
Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Seri Ramli Mohamed Yoosuf said the trio entered the country on student visas with a private college in Selangor.
Two of them have been in Malaysia since 2022 while the other arrived this year.
Ramli said investigations showed that they began their criminal activities this year, by purchasing the fake dollar bills through a seller on TikTok.
The men also purchased blank currency paper.
"They would resell the fake notes to buyers in Malaysia at RM1,000 per 10,000 pieces. They would also tell sellers that they created a machine capable of creating fake bank notes," he told reporters today.
The bogus machine would be used to simulate the printing process and dupe buyers into believing they were making their own forged US currency.
Ramli said the raid saw police seize four counterfeit US$100 bills, two blank pieces of paper the same size as the US$100 bills, a machine, four mobile phones, two cars and one passport.
"Based on our investigations, the fake notes were sold by a supplier in China," he said.
Ramli said the suspects have been remanded until Oct 21 to facilitate further investigations.
The case has been classified under Section 489B of the Penal Code for selling counterfeit currency.