They post photos of “brothers” covered in tattoos on social media to pique curiosity. Some send private messages on social media platforms to recruit members.
Accounts of how gangs are tapping into social media to recruit young members were told to participants of an annual camp organised for at-risk youths by the Criminal Investigation Department’s (CID) Secret Societies Branch yesterday — now into its eighth year.
“When youths see these photos through social media, they get very curious … they want to be cool (and) known to the public,” said former gang member Kim Whye Kee, 37, who shared his story with the 35 participants of the camp.
Mr Azmi Abdul Rehman, 43, who was in a gang for more than 15 years until he quit in 2011, added that gangs are “more open” than before. With gangs recruiting through social media platforms nowadays, he said it has become easier for youths to fall into bad company, but the conspicuity also increases their chances of getting caught.
The at-risk youths, aged between 13 and 18, were asked to share how they were recruited, and the advantages and disadvantages of being part of a gang, among other things, during the two-day camp held at Pulau Ubin.
Some said they were recruited through Facebook, where a friend would send a message asking directly if they would be interested in joining a gang. Others said they were approached during football games.
They said they were lured in because of the easy money from criminal activities, or saw it as a way to make more friends. At the same time, they admitted that they were stressed out about getting caught or drifting away from their loved ones.
For example, Jack (not his real name), 16, said a schoolmate confronted him last year, accusing him of looking for trouble. Later, he was asked to join the schoolmate’s gang, where he helped sell drugs. Jack decided to call it quits when he realised that his family was slowly giving up on him.
“That really affected me, so I wanted to quit the gang and try to lead a better life,” he said, adding that he is inspired to follow the path of the social worker who helped him.
Superintendent of Police, Bernard Wee, who heads the Secret Societies Branch, said youth crime is multi-dimensional, requiring the police to work closely with key stakeholders to address root causes of the issue.
“Through such experiential learning opportunities, we seek to reinforce the youths’ self-confidence and instil in them self-discipline and positive values,” he said. “They would then learn to take responsibility for themselves, and make the right decisions to steer clear from gangs and to stay crime-free.”
KUALA LUMPUR — The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group is in an “aggressive mode” in reaching out to Malay-speaking communities by making reading materials in the Malay language more accessible online, a move that could have wide-ranging ramifications for countries in South-east Asia.
The Malaysian authorities say ISIS is spreading its propaganda through more “localised news reports” and “articles” that glorify its fighters, especially those from Malaysia and Indonesia who have travelled to Syria to take up arms with the militant group.
These “articles” are uploaded on ISIS websites in Malay, which also share information on ISIS activities in the provinces they conquered.
One of the websites is a portal containing articles taken from the ISIS magazine Dabiq, which are then translated into Bahasa Indonesia and Malay.
Online recruiters in Malaysia and Indonesia also use forums and blogs to reach out to potential recruits.
Malaysia’s top counter-terrorism official, Mr Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, said the ISIS recruiters would include articles on martyrdom and life in the organisation.
“They feed their sympathisers with fairy tales,” said Mr Ayob.
It is understood that there are currently about six to seven ISIS websites, forums and blogs in Malay.
Mr Ayob said these websites use servers abroad to avoid detection from the authorities in both countries.
The ISIS social-media unit has also taken the initiative to include Malay subtitles in its radio programmes broadcast in English and Arabic through ISIS’ official radio station, Bayan, which was made available on YouTube three months ago.
A check on YouTube, which provides access to recorded ISIS radio programmes, showed that Bayan attracts between 700 and 2,000 visitors.
International Islamic University Malaysia’s Political Science and Islamic Studies lecturer Ahmad Muhammady said the emergence of ISIS websites in Malay indicates an “offensive approach” taken by the terror group.
“Before this, they took a ‘defensive approach’, that is to respond to the accusations made against them, and it was done either in Arabic, English or Indonesian. Now, they changed tact,” Mr Ahmad said.
“To me, it is not surprising. Currently, the term ‘jihad media’ (ilami jihadi) is getting popular among the pro-ISIS chatters. This term is coined … to encourage young people to join the ISIS media team to take an offensive approach against their ‘enemies’.”
Last month, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told a regional security forum in Singapore that South-east Asia is a key recruitment centre for ISIS.
“ISIS has so many Indonesian and Malaysian fighters that they form them into a unit by themselves — the Katibah Nusantara (Malay Archipelago Combat Unit),” said Mr Lee, who also warned that ISIS could establish a base somewhere in the region and pose a “serious threat to the whole of South-east Asia”.
His remarks followed the recent arrests of two self-radicalised Singaporean youths, including M Arifil Azim Putra Norja’i, 19, who had planned intensively to attack key facilities and assassinate government leaders if he was unable to leave Singapore for Syria.
Mr Ahmad said ISIS’ use of Malay-language materials as a recruitment tool was a worrying development for Malaysia. “Currently, there is an increase in interest among youths in rural areas in the east coast, especially among secondary and college students,” he said.
He said the use of Malay as the medium was all about penetrating deeper into Malaysian society.
“Those who are not educated in English still rely on the Malay website as a source of reference.”
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said so far, no ISIS websites in Malay have been shut down.
Its monitoring and enforcement division head Zulkarnain Mohd Yasin said MCMC was aware of the emergence of the ISIS sites.
“So far, we have not blocked any such website, but we did take down a few videos on YouTube,” he told The Malaysian Insider.
People please share this. This is quoted from a friend. This is serious!
“I received a call from someone claiming that he was from my mobile Service provider and he asked me to shutdown my phone for 2 hours for 3G update to take place. As I was rushing for a meeting,
I did not question, but just shut down my cell phone.
After 45 minutes I felt very suspicious since the caller did not even introduce his name.
I quickly turned on my cell phone and saw several missed calls from my family members and the others were from the number that had called me earlier –
I called my parents and I was shocked that they sounded very worried asking me whether I am safe.
My parents told me that they had received a call from someone claiming that they had me with them and asking for money to let me free. The call was so real and my parents even heard ‘my voice’ crying out loud asking for help.
My father was at the bank waiting for next call to proceed for money transfer.
I told my parents that I am safe and asked them to lodge a police report.
Right after that I received another call from the guy asking me to shutdown my cell phone for another 1 hour which I refused to do and hung up.
They kept calling my cell phone until the battery had run down. I myself
lodged a police report and I was informed by the officer that there were many such scams reported. MOST of the cases reported that the victim had already
transferred the money! And it is impossible to get back the money. Be
careful as this kind of scam might happen to any of us!!!
Those guys are so professional and very convincing during calls. If you are asked to shut down your cell phone for updates by the service provider, ASK AROUND!
Your family or friends might receive the same call. ”
Be Safe and Stay Alert!
Please pass around to your family and friends !!!
People have been receiving calls from+375602605281, +37127913091 or any number starting from +375, +371 number one ring & hang up. If you call back it’s one of those Numbers that are charged $15-30 & they can copy yr contact list in 3sec & if u have bank or credit card details on your phone, they can copy that too. +375 is from Belarus From Afghanistan.. 371 is code for Lativa…
Don’t answer or call back. Please FORWARD
AND SHARE this to your friends and family
Credit: Berita Harian SGhttps://www.facebook.com/galaxytrioterbaik
At first when Rilek1Corner published articles on a MLM/Pyramid/Ponzi/GRQ company, I was furious becos I had just joined in and it would affect my prospecting.
True as it is, the prospects started canceling meetings and there were even people who stood me up. I just had a newborn baby and had to leave her for this meeting every night to accompany prospects to view the presentations. I took cabs there. I needed to pay for the trainings that they provided which is just to teach you how to use the website and how to persuade your family, friends and strangers to join in as well which requires you endless of postings and the annoying random tagging Facebook friends (Ya that was taught in the training).
And if you need flyers that only published some Caucasian family with USD notes in it (it was said that the company is branched out into Asia regions and the base is here so why not picture our locals and not some photo ripped off from Google) and name cards, you also need to pay for that. They are all not inclusive in their expensive membership fees. The application forms for your prospects are also DIY and you need to print them on your own. Rich company with cheap ideas.
It was a requirement to have such huge capitals to join. There were small and big boards. Sound like a money game right? That is why some individuals have views that it is similar to gambling which is quite true to me now. You risk thousands of dollars in it and if your board is stuck and no one in your board recruits anyone, you will forever be at the same position you joined in and don’t get any returns at all.
The people who take photos with lots of money make it looks so easy. They are people who already have connections with people who have money. Thus they can create their own network bigger and faster than the ones who do not have connections. Sometimes it is also becos they were from a different MLM company and dragged the others to join in the new ones. It is like a fad. These group of people will keep changing their attentions and try all other platforms in MLM industry to make money out of others’ hard earned money.
This particular MLM company has their members posting that you need not sell anything when their membership is inclusive with “motivational” ebooks written by an author who is a Minister in the United States in the 16th century. They said it is not an MLM company becos it is not like other companies that requires you to sell various products with targets and the uplines profiting in your sales.
How can it be not an Multi-Level Marketing company when they have 4 levels in each board?
And in order for you to get your payout you have to be at the top and it does not matter if the vacant boxes are filled up by you or other members in the board. Once you are at the very top, and the empty boxes are filled, you get your payout.
So aren’t you profiting on other member’s efforts? If it is not pyramid scheme, why is the board in a shape of a pyramid?
A matrix board system is a modified pyramid scheme. They claimed that the company originated from Canada for 26 years but the company registry was done in 2013, also in British Virgin Islands. Contradicting isnt it? When asked where the other members in other parts of the world other than Asia, they will say we can only access the website which is only in our region. Strange isn’t it now? Members also asked who the founder in Canada is. No one has the answers and instead we were told that we are not allowed to acknowledge who the founder is becos afraid that competitor companies will spoil the market. More question marks now.
Till date, no one cld tell any truth about it. When someone tries to speak up, they will threaten you that they file a lawsuit against you for defamation. If it is legal and lawful, why is the company not registered in Singapore itself after so many commotions? They will tell you it is becos SG will tax us and we will receive low payouts. So? If anything happens, you have no one to turn to becos it is not a registered company here.
The thing is with people who are involved in MLM, they will fish you in by sweet talking, be it family members, relatives, friends or just strangers. Telling you that there are no other “good” platforms as such anywhere in the country. When you join, they leave you 100% on your own and expect you to do your work. If you don’t get to recruit anyone, they will accuse you of sleeping or not doing your work. Trust me, it had been dozens of times me going up and down their office to accompany prospects and many turned me down.
Criticisms over the social media on what I was doing. It was a waste of so much money. People joining in with hopes to get rich but in the end losing money. What the pioneers or the successful ones are doing, they just keep going and leave the unlucky ones behind. Telling you it is all rezeki/fate that you dont get your money back. If you give up, they even block you in FB becos they deem you as a negative person.
Seriously? As uplines or pioneers, you should guide and help. Not leave us. Clearly shown how people can be nice to you for money and nasty when they receive your money. Instantly you become an enemy to them. Why show others photos of the same people? How about the unsuccessful ones? They tell you 1k-2k members has gotten their payouts so why is it less than 1% of the “successful” members’ testimonials published in the website?
Again Rilek1Corner would like to take this opportunity to remind dear readers about get-rich quick schemes (GRQ) and its many guises – MLM, Pyramid, Ponzi, Board, Matrix, Pigeon, etc.
Just like human beings, these GRQs come in many fancy names. But there will always be two constant characteristics: (i) the recruitment of new members, and (ii) you are required to pay some money upfront. This money can be in the form of membership fee, registration fee, or some admin charges. It is just a simple reason for them to take your hard-earned money.
Remember, your hard-earned money is your money. Learn to appreciate. Instead of giving to strangers, might as well spend it on your family and loved ones. Unless you strike a lottery, no one gets rich in an instant.
If people say they are wealth experts, why are they still staying in public housing? Why aren’t they employed as ministers and coming out with policies to help Singaporeans if they are really that great? Why aren’t they being headhunted by banks and other MNCs to help generate money?
Instead they target commoners like you and us.
Please save your money. Keep it for rainy days.
Ramadhan is approaching soon. Let’s not fool our friends, relatives and those poor elderly people who have little savings left to spend during their silver years.
