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

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

Post by LoukBongThom »

Tommie wrote: Fri Mar 11, 2022 11:20 pm How F... difficult could it be to stop these chinese gangsters?
Officials are too busy with planning and attending inaugurations of new hi-ways, bridges, and the upcoming airport and stadium .... and talk tough on non-senses on national broadcasts ...
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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Illegal [Thai] workers to be caught, returned
published : 28 Mar 2022 at 04:30

Police are firming a plan to work with Cambodia authorities in an operation to arrest Thais working as call centre scammers there while the Royal Thai Navy (RTN) will arrange a ship to bring those arrested back to Thailand.

Assistant national police chief, Pol Lt Gen Surachate Hakparn, who is in charge of combating human trafficking operations, told the Bangkok Post yesterday there are about 2,800-3,000 Thais working as call centre scammers, some of whom were duped by the call centre gangs.

He said Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon instructed him to work with Cambodian police to arrest and send the Thais back.

"There are about 2,800-3,000 of them. We will ask Cambodian police to arrest them and they will be sent back to Thailand. They will be screened and categorised before legal action is taken,'' Pol Lt Gen Surachate said.

He said he will lead a team of senior police to fly to Phnom Penh and some other cities on April 2 to take part in the operation, which is expected to take several days.

Pol Lt Gen Surachate also said Gen Prawit had asked the RTN to arrange a large ship to bring the arrested Thai workers back to Thailand.

A source at the Immigration Bureau previously said not all Thais employed by call centre gangs in Cambodia had been duped and forced to work there.

In fact, more than 90% of Thais had crossed the border to Cambodia of their own accord and consented to working for the gangs.

Also, arranging for repatriation may be difficult as the gangs may resist attempts to arrest the workers.

Some gang leaders are Chinese nationals and believed to be well-connected to high-ranking officials in Cambodia, according to the source.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2285998/
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

Post by atst »

That's right all efforts to find and arrest the victims but nothing about arresting the organizer's they obviously aren't doing anything wrong.Fnck me.
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Thai and Cambodian authorities crack down on scam call centers

Post by techietraveller84 »

More Scam Call Centers Busted!

https://www.pattayamail.com/thailandnew ... ers-393669

Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas, deputy commissioner-general of the Royal Thai Police and chief of Police Cyber Task Force (PCT), said 61 people were involved with the scheme and were arrested at two operation sites.

Authorities in Thailand and Cambodia have busted a major scam call operation in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, making 61 arrests in the process.

Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas, deputy commissioner-general of the Royal Thai Police and chief of Police Cyber Task Force (PCT), said 61 people were involved with the scheme and were arrested at two operation sites.

28 suspects were apprehended at the first call center, which operated from an abandoned factory. Evidence found at the site included mobile phones, walkie-talkies, notebook computers and conversation scripts.

The scammers made calls impersonating police officers or employees of logistics operators DHL and FedEx, tricking their victims into making money transfers. The scammers would get a 4% cut from these transactions, with each receiving 30,000-100,000 baht per month.

28 suspects were apprehended at the first call center, which operated from an abandoned factory while evidence found at the site included mobile phones, walkie-talkies, notebook computers and conversation scripts.

Another 33 suspects were arrested at a casino building and operated mainly on mobile dating applications such as Tinder, baiting users into making online investments and crypto currency trades. They are believed to have scammed their victims into co-investing in their e-commerce operations on the retail app Lazada, promising high returns.

The Royal Thai Police have so far seized some 47 million baht related to these fraudulent schemes.

Around some 4,600 complaints have been made through the police’s online case reporting center since its opening on March 1, with most of the cases being financial scams. The general public is encouraged to report any suspicious activities to the Police Cyber Task Force by calling 081-866 3000, contacting the Crime Investigation Bureau’s 1441 hotline, or visiting www.pct.police.go.th.(NNT)
Another 33 suspects were arrested at a casino building and operated mainly on mobile dating applications such as Tinder, baiting users into making online investments and crypto currency trades.

The general public is encouraged to report any suspicious activities to the Police Cyber Task Force by calling 081-866 3000, contacting the Crime Investigation Bureau’s 1441 hotline, or visiting www.pct.police.go.th.
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

Cambodian police deny reports of Thais being held against their will in the country
Malaysian police have said human trafficking is widespread in Southeast Asia, including Cambodia.
By RFA’s Khmer Service and BenarNews
2022.04.01
Reuters

Cambodian authorities Friday denied media reports that Thai citizens are being held against their will in Cambodia by criminal gangs, but Malaysian police said human trafficking syndicates were running rampant across the entire Southeast Asian region.

Chhoun Narin, police chief of the Sihanoukville Police Department, told RFA’s Khmer Service that more than 100 Thais have crossed over the border between the two countries to illegally take jobs in casinos located in Sihanoukville province.

“We hear fake stories about detentions and torture,” he said. “There are no illegal detentions.”

The denial contradicts reports in the Bangkok Post and other Southeast Asian outlets that there are between 2,800 and 3,000 Thais working illegally in Cambodia who have been tricked by gangs to take positions as scammers, according to Thai police estimates.

Despite the denial, Chhoun Narin said the police will cooperate with Thai officials in repatriating Thai citizens. But he declined to comment on whether Cambodia will charge Thais found to be in the country illegally.

RFA was unable to reach National Police spokesman Chhay Kim Khouen for comment on Friday.

After the Cambodian government opened up the company following COVID-19 restrictions, reports of criminal activities in Sihanoukville province flooded the offices of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, Cheap Sotheary, the group’s Sihanoukville province coordinator, told RFA.

She urged Cambodian authorities to work with their Thai counterparts to resolve complaints about kidnapping and detentions in Cambodia.

“There should be an investigation to see how many separate incidents there are. If Thai delegates come, there should be a cooperation to avoid any misunderstanding,” she said.

Police in Malaysia, meanwhile, have information indicating a human trafficking syndicate has trapped Malays as forced labor in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, reported.

Since 2021, the Anti-trafficking unit of Malaysia’s Federal Criminal Investigation Department received six police reports of involving 26 victims — 24 men and two women—in need of rescue from crime syndicates.

The police believe that there are still many people in similar situations but have not lodged reports with authorities.

Police say that the victims were duped by job advertisements offering relatively high salaries doing social media work as customer service officers in other countries.

Interested job seekers were encouraged to contact agents via WeChat, WhatsApp or Facebook who then would arrange travel costs for the unsuspecting victims. Once they arrived at the destination, the syndicate would confiscate or destroy travel documents and mobile devices, leaving the migrants with no way to call for help or escape on their own.

The victims then would be sent to specific locations such as Preah Sihanouk in Cambodia, Mae Sot in Thailand, Vientiane in Laos and Kayin State in Myanmar and forced to work in scams involving online gambling, fake investments and Bitcoin mining.

They would not be allowed to return home if they did not reach the company's sales targets or they could pay between U.S. $7,125 and $11,875 for their release.

The Royal Malaysian Police is working with Interpol and Aseanapol to seek help in tracking and rescuing Malaysian victims.

RFA reported last month that dozens of Thais and hundreds of Lao citizens were duped into working in casinos in Laos’ Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone. If these victims failed to meet sales quotas, they were told they would be sold to employers at different companies, including for positions in the sex trade.

Multiple groups of Thais escaped last month back to Thailand or were rescued and repatriated.

Translated by RFA’s Khmer Service and BenarNews. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambod ... 72802.html
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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CEO News Remark on the following article:
AsiaNews is a news agency promoted by the PIME missionaries, the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions. Please take note that the political views of the writer of this article are not those of Cambodia Expats Online, but the article is being posted here to give CEO readers a look at some of the different international media treatment on the subject of foreign slavery rings inside Cambodia, which has become a hot topic in the press.

04/04/2022, 15.04
MALAYSIA – CAMBODIA
Malaysian women forced to engage in online scams in Cambodia
by Steve Suwannarat

The Malaysian Chinese Association has raised the issue of about a hundred young women forced to work in call centres carrying out online scams. This is the tip of the iceberg that involves thousands of people at the mercy of criminal gangs linked to a casino network which Cambodian authorities welcomed into the country.

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) – At least a hundred young women, some aged 17, are held in Cambodia, subjected to pressure and even physical abuse, forced into cyber slave work in online scams, this according to the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), an opposition political party representing Malaysia’s Chinese community.

At a press conference the MCA announced that all requests for information made to Cambodian authorities by Malaysian officials and the women’s relatives have proved fruitless.

After entering the country, women are placed in isolation, under armed guards and forced to engage in cyber fraud. If they fail to meet scamming quotas they are punished.

Thousands of people from Asian countries have been lured to Cambodia by job offers only to be forced to work in slave-like conditions in various service activities.

Young women are particularly vulnerable to this traffic, forced into prostitution as well as cyber fraud.

Most of the victims are in the women’s countries of origin, and all the benefits go to brutal criminal gangs, connected mostly to a Chinese-run casino network that has set up across the small Southeast Asian country in recent years.

https://www.asianews.it/news-en/Malaysi ... 55513.html
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

Post by atst »

Fake news they are making up thier story's just ask the people running the show in Chinatown
These diplomats from many countries asking questions about what's happening to thier citizens in Cambodia are being told there's nothing happening, but one report said they were going to clean the place up in a month :please:
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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April 7, 2022
Rescue mission in Sihanoukville to free Malaysians turns out to be hoax
Preah Sihanoukville Provincial Police yesterday conducted a mission to purportedly rescue 15 Malaysians reported to be abducted, but it turned out to be a trick to be helped to leave Cambodia.

Provincial police chief Major General Chuon Narin told Khmer Times that the mission was arranged after the police had been informed by a building owner who was suspicious that an illegal online gambling had kidnapped some Malaysians.

“When our officials got down to the place, they found that those Malaysians were working for a legal casino company,” Narin said. “Some Malaysians working there came up with the trick because they wanted to be assisted in leaving the country.”

He added that 15 Malaysians will be sent to Phnom Penh today, and the central police department will decide on what to do with them.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501054113/ ... o-be-hoax/
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

Post by techietraveller84 »

https://www.asianews.it/news-en/Malaysi ... 55513.html

Malaysian women forced to engage in online scams in Cambodia
by Steve Suwannarat

The Malaysian Chinese Association has raised the issue of about a hundred young women forced to work in call centres carrying out online scams. This is the tip of the iceberg that involves thousands of people at the mercy of criminal gangs linked to a casino network which Cambodian authorities welcomed into the country.


Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews) – At least a hundred young women, some aged 17, are held in Cambodia, subjected to pressure and even physical abuse, forced into cyber slave work in online scams, this according to the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), an opposition political party representing Malaysia’s Chinese community.

At a press conference the MCA announced that all requests for information made to Cambodian authorities by Malaysian officials and the women’s relatives have proved fruitless.

After entering the country, women are placed in isolation, under armed guards and forced to engage in cyber fraud. If they fail to meet scamming quotas they are punished.

Thousands of people from Asian countries have been lured to Cambodia by job offers only to be forced to work in slave-like conditions in various service activities.

Young women are particularly vulnerable to this traffic, forced into prostitution as well as cyber fraud.

Most of the victims are in the women’s countries of origin, and all the benefits go to brutal criminal gangs, connected mostly to a Chinese-run casino network that has set up across the small Southeast Asian country in recent years.

Cambodian authorities allow them operate because of the benefits they bring to the country, above all to Prime Minister HE.

The former Khmer Rouge operative has been in power for 35 years, and has developed close ties to China through an “open door” policy vis-à-vis Chinese business groups.

This has helped him deflect international criticism of his autocratic regime and resist calls for sanctions against his repression and denial of democratic political rights.

The Malaysian case is only the tip of the iceberg. Thai authorities have also opened specific investigations and undertaken steps to repatriate about 3,000 Thais believed to be enslaved.

Pakistan, Vietnam, and China have been doing the same thing for some time.
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

^^ Already posted:
post541428.html#p541428
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