Cambodia’s Chinese scam gangs are forcing desperate young Asians into crime – and the pandemic only made things worse
Debt-saddled youngsters from across Asia are being trafficked by criminal gangs to work in scam call centres defrauding their compatriots
Most victims are from Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, but Indonesians, Malaysians and even Kenyans are also being duped by the scam call-centre gangs
Published: 2:00pm, 27 Aug, 2022

It starts with a social media job posting, or a nudge over Facebook from an acquaintance, promising debt-saddled youngsters from Hong Kong to Taiwan, Thailand and Malaysia rewards for overseas work in online sales.

But once the prospective employee leaves for their new job, they tumble through a trapdoor of trafficking, debt-bound to ruthless Chinese gangs who force them to scam their compatriots, or face beatings and the risk of being sold to another criminal crew.

Asia is in the grip of a scamming epidemic, centred on Cambodia but with lucrative outposts in the casinos of Myanmar and Laos’ anarchic borderlands.
Full article: https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economic ... ung-asians

Nearly 900 Foreign Nationals Rescued from Trafficking from January to August
AKP Phnom Penh, August 27, 2022--

Cambodian competent authorities rescued 890 foreign victims of trafficking from January to the fourth week of August, according to a statement released on Aug. 26 by the Ministry of Interior.

It was circulated under the name of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Samdech Krolahom Sar Kheng who is also the President of the National Committee for Counter Trafficking.

According to the statement, the rescued foreign nationals were resulted by the authorities' interventions in 74 human trafficking cases, and filed the lawsuit against 17 of the cases.

Through the crackdown, the authorities have detained 83 suspects who confessed they were part of the rings with leaders in their respective countries and accomplices in Cambodia.

As explained by the victims, they were deceived through social media to illegally enter Cambodia with promise of decent employment, however, they ended up working for illegal online gambling, abused and trafficked.
- AKP

Police Hotline: English, Chinese and Vietnamese Now Spoken

Cambodia News, (Phnom Penh): According to the information source from the General Commission of the National Police, on the afternoon of August 26, 2022, it was announced to the people all over the country and foreigners, if there are any cases related to illegal detention or any form of human trafficking, please call the hotline 117, as the 117th Command Center has now added a permanent national police officer who speaks English, Chinese and Vietnamese.
Citizens can call 117 free of charge.

Man sells son's friends to Cambodia
By Le Tan August 26, 2022 | 01:27 am PT

A habitual criminal in Hai Phong is now under investigation for allegedly tricking his son's friends and trafficking them to Cambodia to work in a casino.

According to police in the northern city, Nguyen Van Anh, 45, had been jailed four times for various crimes.

During his last stint, he got in touch with two inmates nicknamed Vang and Cau, and met them on his release in 2020. By then they were working for a gang that smuggled people aged 18-40 to Cambodia for working, and offered intermediaries commissions.

Anh decided to join them, targeted a group of his son's friends and approached four boys aged 16-17, all Hai Phong residents.

He developed close relationships with the boys and even offered to be their "adoptive father."

They had dropped out of school and wanted to find jobs to support their families, and Anh capitalized on this to persuade them to go to Cambodia for work.

The police said that in late March he told the four that a friend of his, based in Cambodia, was recruiting young workers and promised them salaries of VND18-20 million ($770-855) a month.

He then contacted Vang and Cau and arranged for them to smuggle the boys into Cambodia.


Nguyen Van Anh. Photo by the police

Only when they reached that country did the four boys realize they had been sold to work in a casino for a price of $2,400 each.

If they wanted to return home, each had to pay at least $2,400 or would be sold elsewhere in Cambodia, they told the police after returning to Vietnam.

The boy called their families, who contacted the casino's managers to pay the ransom. One of the families paid $2,600 and the rest paid $10,000 each, the police said.

The boys filed a complaint against Nguyen Van Anh.

But even before their return, Anh had been arrested for carrying 400 grams of meth and 1,000 ecstasy pills in neighboring Quang Ninh Province.
https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/man-s ... 04095.html

Not all people who ask to be rescued are true victims; according to members of the Singaporean organisation GASO, in some cases, the "victims" are just incompetent scammers.

Long read:
S'poreans who rescue cyber slavery victims offer glimpse of life inside scam compounds in Southeast Asia
Tricking people into working as scammers by luring them over with false job advertisements has become a major criminal industry in Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia and Myanmar.
Matthias Ang | August 28, 2022, 07:56 AM

[excerpts]
PERSPECTIVE: In June 2021, a Singaporean scam victim founded the Global Anti-Scam Organisation (GASO) to help support people around the world who have been affected by cybercrimes.

Mothership spoke to two Singaporeans who volunteer with GASO in its anti-human trafficking department.

Speaking to Mothership, a Singaporean who joined GASO's anti-human trafficking department as a volunteer in March 2022, Lucy (not her real name), said these experiences are typical in such compounds, regardless of whether they are located in countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, the Philippines or Thailand.
Another volunteer, Carol (not her real name), who joined the department in July 2021, said those who refused to be scammers were tortured by the syndicate.

Not all pleas for help are genuine
This leads to Lucy's next point about the people trapped within the compounds: they are aware of what they are doing.

GASO's anti-human trafficking department does not rescue people who have been at a compound for three months or more because it generally means such "victims" are willing participants in the scams.

If such profiles call for help, according to Carol, it is because they are incompetent at "doing sales" — that is, scamming people.

Lucy added, "Anybody in their right mind, if you do not know what you are being tricked into, will immediately look for help."

Lucy shared a recent case she dealt with — a Hong Konger brought to a scam compound in Myanmar on Aug. 11 after flying over to Thailand on Aug. 10 in response to an advertisement for a job opening.

"He panicked and immediately went to ask his family for help," she said.

In contrast, she added that a call for help from someone who has been at a scam compound for two to three months is "dubious", as it means that this person has probably tried to engage in scamming.

"When we talk to a person who wants to be rescued, we will also roughly know their mindset or their thoughts," she said.

Checks on the person's background will also be carried out. This includes reaching out to their family members to help determine if a person is lying and whether a rescue should be made, Carol further elaborated.

She added that many of the people they talked to wanted to be rescued because they could not do "sales".

Carol acknowledged however, that there is still a minority among this group who really do not want to engage in scams but were doing so under the threat of torture by the compound's management.
Full article: https://mothership.sg/2022/08/scam-slav ... -rescuers/

More on the story about the Vietnamese man, Nguyen Van Anh, who sold his son's friends to casino criminals in Cambodia.

The four teenagers were first sold to the Yong Yuan casino in Sampeou Poun Commune of Kaoh Thom District in Kandal Province (photo below), before being sold on to the infamous Golden Phoenix casino (where 40 Vietnamese workers escaped by swimming across the border).

The four Vietnamese families borrowed money and sold assets to pay the ransoms for their children, and two fathers went to Cambodia to negotiate their release. The men returned to Vietnam with the four teenagers on 25 April 2022.

Vietnamese parents buy back children from Cambodian casino mafia
By Le Tan August 28, 2022 | 07:31 pm PT

Yong Yuan casino, Kandal province
Four families in Hai Phong City visited Cambodia to pay thousands of dollars in ransom to get their children back after the latter were tricked and trafficked by an acquaintance.

Nguyen Tuan of An Duong District in Hai Phong learned late March that his teenage son wished to travel to Cambodia and work with his friends.
It was Nguyen Van Anh, 45, who recommended his son for the job.
"Anh is the father of Vu, a close friend of my son. He used to visit us at our home. He seemed to communicate well and care for the kids," said Tuan.
Tuan's son was one of four teenagers that was tricked and sold to Cambodia by Anh. The other three, also friends of Anh's son, were two boys and a girl.
According to Hai Phong police, Anh has a track record of crimes, having been jailed four times.[ Anh is currently under investigation by Vietnamese authorities for human trafficking.}
Full article: https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/famil ... 04965.html

Four Tired Chinese "Rescued" from Thai Border Resort

Cambodia News (Oddar Meanchey): O'Smach City Police Force on 28 August 2022 intervened to rescue four Chinese men, after it was reported to the Border Police that the victims were forced to work without rest at the O'Smach Resort, O'Smach Village, Oddar Meanchey Province.

According to the police, the intervention and rescue of the above victims was made after the police of the 117 hotline command centre informed the specialized force of Oddar Meanchey Provincial Police about the detention of several Chinese victims at O'Smach Resort.

According to the explanations of the four victims above, it was not a case of coercion, torture or intimidation, but only working long and tiring hours without rest.
Currently, the victims have been sent to the Oddar Meanchey Provincial Police for further investigation into the case.