DAP has teamed up with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to uncover a scam involving under-the-table payments for non-existent low-cost flats in Jinjang Selatan, Kuala Lumpur.

Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng said the scam, which they first heard about four years ago, involves agents asking interested buyers to pay them a RM37,000 fee to bypass Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), in order to obtain People's Housing Programme (PPR) homes valued at RM42,000.

Lim said Segambut DAP finally managed to set up a meeting with the scammers earlier this month on Aug 4.

“After we contacted the con men, we informed the MACC on this matter, and they sent 20 officials to assist us in this operation.”

“(The next day) one of the MACC officials and Segambut DAP branch secretary Lai Chun Chian pretended to be buyers, and made the deal outside of a Kepong law firm. Once the money was paid to the con men, the MACC arrested them immediately," he said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

However, Lim (photo) said the mastermind behind the scam is believed to be still at large.

So how does the scam work?

According to Segambut DAP branch chief Yew Jia Haur, the scammers will bring their potential victims to a construction site in Taman Sejahtera, Jinjang Selatan, where they will point to a DBKL notice board.

“They bring us to the board and convince us to believe that is the PPR project sign, and bring us to the lawyer's firm to pay them in cash (under-the-table money)," Yew said.

However, he said the board is not a notice for a PPR project, but instead a DBKL notice of a planned transformation of the lot from a residential area into a mixed commercial and residential area.

A false project

Yew suspects that the law firm where the bribes are paid may be involved in the scam.

“However, they are very careful, that is why they only make the transaction outside the law firm, not inside, so that the law firm can avoid being implicated in the case."

Unfortunately, Lim said many people refused to believe this is a false project, despite confirmation from the KL mayor that no such PPR project in Jinjang Selatan is in the works.

“The people ask us not to interrupt them and destroy their hopes of getting a house.

“But there is no PPR project in Jinjang Selatan, only in Jinjang Utara area. And even (if there was a Jinjang Selatan PPR) DBKL would not allow under-table transactions,” Lim said.

He urged the public to be aware of the scam, and for those who had been duped to stand up and stop this thing once and for all.

He also advised those who had been conned to lodge police reports so they can get their money back.