Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

Cambodia news in English! Here you'll find all the breaking news from Cambodia translated into English for our international readership and expat community to read and comment on. The majority of our news stories are gathered from the local Khmer newspapers, but we also bring you newsworthy media from Cambodia before you read them anywhere else. Because of the huge population of the capital city, most articles are from Phnom Penh, but Siem Reap, Sihanoukville, and Kampot often make the headlines as well. We report on all arrests and deaths of foreigners in Cambodia, and the details often come from the Cambodian police or local Khmer journalists. As an ASEAN news outlet, we also publish regional news and events from our neighboring countries. We also share local Khmer news stories that you won't find in English anywhere else. If you're looking for a certain article, you may use our site's search feature to find it quickly.
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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DMW rescues, assists over 90 human trafficking victims in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia
By Bamba Galang, CNN Philippines
Published Dec 2, 2022 11:48:42 AM

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 2) — The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) on Friday said it has so far rescued and assisted over 90 Filipino workers who are victims of human trafficking in Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia.

“Doon lang sa (Only there in) Myanmar… it’s actually 45 and lahat ng 45 na yan lahat sila (all 45 of them are) undocumented,” DMW Secretary Susan Ople told CNN Philippines’ The Source. “Sa Laos, based sa records namin, (In Laos, based on our records) we were able to assist 31 victims and then 22 from Cambodia.”
https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/202 ... bodia.html
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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Whilst up Bokor in Kampot last week I noticed significant numbers of Chinese now staying in the casino apartments, lots of cars and vans, and security back on the gates to the complex.
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

Post by Fourkinnel »

And just over a couple of years ago, people obviously with interest in this or the real estate business were calling it "progress" :facepalm:
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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JOB SCAM/296 Taiwanese linked to job scams still in Cambodia, other Southeast Asian countries
12/13/2022 04:05 PM

Taipei, Dec. 13 (CNA) A Taiwanese diplomat on Tuesday said there are still around 300 Taiwanese nationals who are believed to be victims of job scam rings in Cambodia and have not returned to the country, even after the government's months-long effort to bring them home.

Wallace Chow (周民淦), director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' (MOFA) Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said that as of Dec. 12, the Taiwan government had assisted with the return of 403 Taiwanese people, many of whom were allegedly lured to Cambodia with offers of fake lucrative jobs and then forced to work for fraud rings.

However, there are still 296 Taiwanese in that situation who have not yet returned to Taiwan, Chow said at a news briefing.

Asked what made it difficult to help the nearly 300 Taiwanese return home, Chow said the Cambodian police recently found many of these fraud rings had left Cambodia to hide in Myanmar or Laos after local police launched a series of raids to track them down.

Therefore, many of these 296 Taiwanese could also be scattered around in different Southeast Asian countries, making it difficult for the Taiwan government to find them and offer assistance, Chow said.

He also suspected that some of them could be members of the fraud rings themselves or may have intentionally cut off contact with their families.

"We can only save those who wished to be saved," Chow said.

The total number of Taiwanese believed to be trapped in Cambodia previously stood at 699, according to figures provided by the National Police Agency (NPA). That figure is an estimate made by Taiwan's government after the NPA launched a round of nationwide checks in August to visit family members of the 4,000 Taiwanese people known to be staying in Cambodia.
https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202212130012
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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Seven Thais escape slave conditions at call centre in Cambodia

Tuesday, 20 Dec 2022
4:45 PM MYT
Image
BANGKOK (The Nation/Asia News Network): Seven Thai nationals managed to break out of the clutches of a Chinese call-centre gang in the Cambodian border town of Krong Bavet on Tuesday (Dec 20).

The victims said they were allowed out of their detention facility at 5am after their Chinese bosses learned that they had sought help via Facebook.

The victims then took a tuk-tuk to the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh to seek help to return home.

On a Facebook Live clip posted at 1am, a woman can be seen asking for help, saying they were being held against their will by security guards and electric fencing.

She said she and other victims had been forced to work for more than 15 hours daily without a break, and their employers had also confiscated their passports and ID cards.

“The call-centre gang demanded up to 100,000 baht in exchange for our freedom,” she said.

The seven Thai victims, who have only been identified by their first names, are Wanvisa, Apinan, Chantima, Saitarn, Kritsadaporn, Prayoon and Anocha.
https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/as ... n-cambodia

UPDATE:
Image
Cambodia News, (Poipet):General Poipet International Border Immigration Police Chief Trey E Chamroeun handed over seven Thai nationals, five of them women, to the Thai Immigration Police in Sa Kaeo province at 7 pm on the 20th December 2022 through Poipet International border gate.
Image
The handover of the seven Thais took place after the Embassy of the Kingdom of Thailand in Cambodia issued a diplomatic note to allow the escaped Thai workers to return home.
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

Post by atst »

Another small win for the victim but nothing about where they were held and by who.
I'm standing up, so I must be straight.
What's a poor man do when the blues keep following him around.(Smoking Dynamite)
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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They were smart to go to the Thai embassy rather than the police, otherwise they'd be held and paying ransom to the police.
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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Job scam syndicate: 359 Malaysians rescued and 129 still unaccounted for, says Foreign Ministry
Wednesday, 21 Dec 2022 7:40 PM MYT

PUTRAJAYA, December 21 — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) — as of December 20 — has received a total of 488 reports of Malaysian citizens who were victims of job scam syndicates in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand.

A statement by MoFA today said of that number, 359 people were rescued, with 331 brought back to Malaysia and 28 more are still in detention to assist with investigation and documentation-related matters.

The statistics of syndicate victims who have been rescued so far are 227 in Cambodia, 61 (in Laos), 38 (in Thailand) and 33 (in Myanmar).

“The ministry, through the Malaysian Embassies in the countries concerned and in close cooperation with the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM), will continue to redouble efforts to track down another 129 victims still unaccounted for, involving the countries of Cambodia (one case), Thailand (eight cases), Laos (29 cases) and Myanmar (91 cases).

“Victims or family members who are suspected of being involved in these criminal syndicates are requested to report to the PDRM and MoFA immediately,” read the statement.

Victims or next of kins can report and deliver relevant information to MoFA via e-mail; [email protected].

Meanwhile, six Malaysians who were victims of a job scam criminal syndicate at the Thailand-Myanmar border have been brought home safely today via Thai Airways flight TG415.

Two of them are victims whose videos have been uploaded by Malaysia International Humanitarian Organisation (MHO) recently, while the rest were Thai Immigration’s detainees. All of them have been handed over to PDRM to assist with investigations.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia ... stry/46500
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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JOB SCAM/Alleged human traffickers re-indicted after more victims rescued from Cambodia
01/04/2023 05:20 PM
Taipei, Jan. 4 (CNA) The leaders of two rings that allegedly lured 88 Taiwanese nationals to Cambodia and forced them to participate in scams have been indicted for a second time by Taipei prosecutors after 30 more of their victims were rescued and returned to Taiwan.

The leaders of the two groups, surnamed Lin (林) and Lee (李), were among nine ring members first indicted in September 2022 after the first 22 of their victims made it back to Taiwan.

They were charged with human trafficking, attempted fraud, obstructing freedoms, violating the Organized Crime Prevention Act, and deceiving people to go abroad for profit.

Taipei prosecutors filed similar charges against Lin and Lee on Wednesday after another 30 of the rings' victims returned home recently, without specifying when.

Neither prosecutors nor law enforcement authorities offered any details about the three dozen victims still unaccounted for.

According to Taipei prosecutors, beginning in late 2021, the two human trafficking groups placed recruiting ads on Facebook offering high-paying customer service jobs in the gaming sector in Cambodia to lure unemployed youths to work in the Southeast Asian country.

They then sold the recruits for US$17,000-US$18,000 per person to telecom fraud syndicates in Cambodia and turned the recruits over to the syndicates in industrial parks in Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville and other parts of Cambodia.
https://focustaiwan.tw/business/202301040014
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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OFWs trafficked into crypto scam, then ‘hostaged’ after rescue – Hontiveros
Jan 19, 2023 7:06 PM PHT
Michelle Abad
[excerpts]
MANILA, Philippines – Senator Risa Hontiveros exposed a report of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) allegedly forced to participate in the cryptocurrency scam in Cambodia, later rescued by police, but were then made to stay at two police stations at least where they reported missing money, according to the senator’s reports as of Thursday, January 19.

Hontiveros first raised the issue in a Senate hearing on Wednesday, January 18. Filipinos were duped into working in Cambodia for a cryptocurrency scam, where they befriended victims before advising them to invest money into the scam.

One of the Filipinos known as “Miles” said that they were made to work up to 16 hours, seven days a week – especially if they could not get people to scam. Miles witnessed her co-worker get electrocuted by their reportedly Chinese employers.

On Wednesday, Hontiveros said that the Filipinos who were in Miles’ group had been rescued by Cambodian police on Monday, January 16, because of an intervention from the Philippine embassy in Phnom Penh.
However, as of Tuesday evening, January 17, “they are being held at a police station without beds and basic facilities.” Hontiveros said she wrote to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to facilitate their swift repatriation.

Victims 'Lose' Money at Cambodian Police Staions
Buddy said that two of the OFWs in the group discovered missing cash from their cell phone cases. One had “Kuwait money, Khmer money, and $10,” while the other lost $200. They made the missing money known to the cops, but brushed it off so they could leave.

The group was brought to a second police station near the Philippine embassy. Buddy said more OFWs discovered missing money amounting to hundreds of dollars from their wallets which were inside their bags.
("We told the police that we had missing cash, but their response to us was, when they asked us at Kampot Police Station if we had money, we said we didn’t have any. That’s what happened.")
Full article: https://www.rappler.com/nation/overseas ... -cambodia/
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