Police in Malaysia have arrested one Malaysian and 25 foreigners after they became aware of a text message spam scam that not only violated IT security but also tricked people out of much-needed money.

The SMS fraud ring made around £1.3 million from locals between 2006 and 2010. The scam involved sending SMS messages to mobile phones, informing the victim that they had won monetary prizes but had to forward an advance fee to a bank account before collecting it. Federal Commercial Crimes Investigations Department (CCID) boss Datuk Koh Hong Sun told reporters that the ring was part of a larger crime syndicate that was disbanded last year.