These seaside apartments were a ghost city - then police say scammers moved in

What the report says

Police in Malaysia have raided alleged scam operations in Forest City, a sprawling seaside development on the country’s southern tip near Singapore that was once promoted as a luxury “paradise” project. The BBC reported that in mid-July officers searched 32 premises across the complex and arrested 335 people, while also seizing computers, phones, laptops and modems valued at about one million ringgit. Authorities said the suspects were linked to two call-centre style hubs used for cryptocurrency investment and romance scams aimed at victims overseas.

Forest City was unveiled in 2016 as a massive, high-end planned community expected to house hundreds of thousands of residents. Instead, the BBC said the site is now thought to have a population far below that target, with many vacant towers and unfinished or underused buildings. People interviewed by the broadcaster described the quiet, low-occupancy environment as one reason criminal groups may have found it attractive.

According to Johor police and experts cited by the BBC, the people detained included Chinese, Indonesian, Malaysian and Myanmar nationals, and investigators were working with Interpol to identify the alleged organiser. The report places the raid in a broader regional context, saying scam networks have increasingly shifted across Southeast Asia and often operate from legitimate-looking commercial properties. That trend matters because such sites can make fraud harder to detect, while also linking online scams to organised crime and, in some cases, trafficking and forced labour.