KOTA BARU, MALAYSIA: Several high-ranking government officers here, including a Datuk, have fallen victim to an elaborate scam which uses prepaid cellphone numbers.

The callers would request the officers to bank in amounts ranging from RM1,000 to RM5,000 as deposit for equipment purchased by their headquarters.

The victims only realised they had been conned when calling back the prepaid numbers to verify the bank-ins. They would only get disconnected tones.

Nine cases - including one from a bank manager - have been reported to the police commercial crime division here since last week. In every case the same modus operandi was used.

State police commercial crime head Supt Rezlan Abu Bakar told a press conference: "The conmen are adapt at duping the victims. They know what the process is concerning issuing of invoices and vouchers.

"They even cite serial numbers. So, perhaps, it may be the work of civil servants who know the departments' purchasing procedures.

"It looks like the handiwork of a syndicate. They know the protocol of the government departments and even mention the names of the headquarters' bosses to convince their victims here," he said.

Supt Rezlan, who declined to reveal the total losses, said the only evidence were a few prepaid cellular numbers registered outside of Kelantan.

Police began to suspect that a syndicate was operating here when a bank manager received a call to bank in a certain amount. The manager realised he was conned after he failed to contact the number despite several tries.

In another development, state Royal Customs and Excise department director Azib Yakob said its preventive division seized 113,788 cigarettes from several local vendors from January to last month. The cigarettes were worth RM325,576, and the unpaid duty was estimated at RM1.8mil.

Azib said Customs were trying to trace the main distributor of the contraband cigarettes.

The cigarettes - believed to be manufactured from tobacco smuggled in from Thailand - are sold at retailers in rural areas.

Multinational tobacco companies in Malaysia have cited smuggled brands as the main reason for their huge losses in revenue.