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

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

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Thousands of Taiwanese may be trafficking victims in Cambodia: Police
08/08/2022 10:53 PM
Taipei, Aug. 8 (CNA) Thousands of Taiwanese lured to Cambodia by the promise of high-paying jobs may be stuck there as victims of human trafficking, according to an estimate by the National Police Agency (NPA).

The NPA has found based on a check of flight records that around 1,000 Taiwanese have traveled to Cambodia per month in recent months but only about 100 per month have returned,
leaving large numbers of Taiwanese unaccounted for.

The NPA estimated that about 2,000 Taiwanese human trafficking victims are still in Cambodia against their will based on travel records but said there could be as many as 5,000 because of blind spots in the data.

It said organized crime gangs often transport victims through third countries or over land borders into Cambodia, which would not show up in travel statistics.

Officially, [Taiwanese] police records only show 141 cases of human trafficking, with 17 consisting of people who were convinced by warnings in airports in Taiwan not to go to their allegedly high-paying jobs overseas.

Calls have emerged for police to investigate these human trafficking rings and help Taiwanese stranded in Southeast Asia amid a series of reports of Taiwanese going to Cambodia on promises of jobs paying NT$70,000 (US$2,350) to NT$200,000 a month and later being subject to abuse.
https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202208080026
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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Taiwan forms task force to help Taiwanese trafficking victims in Cambodia
08/11/2022 07:54 PM

Taipei, Aug. 11 (CNA) An inter-ministerial task force has been set up by the Executive Yuan to tackle the issue of a large number of Taiwanese citizens having been lured to Cambodia by the promise of high-paying jobs and stuck there as human trafficking victims, Cabinet spokesperson Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said Thursday.

Amid a series of reports of Taiwanese being lured to Cambodia, Myanmar, and other countries with lucrative job offers before being forced into illegal work while being subject to abuse, several legislators, including Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, held a news conference on Thursday calling for a task force to tackle this problem to be set up.

In response to this request, Lo said later on Thursday that a Cabinet-level task team had been set up and its top priority will be to have people who were trapped in Cambodia rescued and returned home.

A rescued victim identified only by her nickname Pipi (皮皮) also showed up at the legislators' news conference to share her experience of working in Cambodia.

Pipi said that a friend got her a high-paying job in Cambodia but when she got there, she was imprisoned in a fully-fenced industrial park.

In seven days, she was resold four times, Pipi said, adding that fortunately, she was able to escape the park after getting help from a local Cambodian provincial governor and chief secretary through an anti-fraud organization, according to Pipi.

Pipi pointed out that some Taiwanese did escape from the park by jumping off a building but had suffered leg injuries in the process.

Some Taiwanese being held were also beaten by fraud rings, which had also bribed the local police so it was useless to call the police, according to Pipi.

From January this year, the number of Taiwanese travelers to Cambodia has exceeded 6,400, Chow noted, describing this as abnormal.
Full article: https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202208110015
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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Two arrested over trafficking individuals for Cambodia telecoms scams
08/13/2022 06:37 PM

Taipei, Aug. 13 (CNA) A New Taipei couple allegedly hired by a fraud ring to lure people to Cambodia to work in telecoms scams have been arrested, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said Saturday.

The two suspects, a 45-year-old man identified by his last name Tsai (蔡) and his girlfriend surnamed Chan (詹), were both arrested on July 24, Chang Wei-lun (張瑋倫), an official with the CIB's International Criminal Affairs Division, said at a press event.

According to the CIB, individuals were recruited through fake job postings on social media for high-paying administrative positions in Cambodia.

In late July, police were able to stop seven people at Taoyuan International Airport who thought they had been hired for legitimate jobs in the Southeast Asian country, the CIB said.

Based on a preliminary investigation, the couple sent about 100 people to Cambodia from June until their arrest on July 24 and earned about NT$2 million (US$66,765) for doing so, he added.
https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202208130011
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

Post by phuketrichard »

wonder how often this happens:
when will some Cambodians/Chinese be arrested? My guess.......NEVER
really does wonders for Cambodia

The following is an account of one such "sex slave" trafficked in Southeast Asia, among the scam gangs. Descriptions and pictures will be very graphic. Account also in: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/xijurHUrX2VgTLbyf2__cQ
Vivian's personal hell started when she landed there in June 24. She was not picked up by the woman but by a man waiting for her. They drove straight to Sihanoukville where she was initially put in a hotel room, where, basically, men after men, probably bosses of scam companies, were invited to come in and have sex with her. She was locked inside and separated from her luggage with only her personal belongings and phone (with no local signal). She was subsequently sold and bought by no less than 4 scam "companies", as she refused to run online scams. Being a voluptuous woman, she was made by one company to pose for photos that she figured would be used for scam profiles. In the rest of that hell week she was continually sexually assaulted, including being gang raped and forced to do fellatio in the men's bathroom to the point of vomiting. She was constantly hungry, thirsty and in pain, with no change of clothes given. She was not spared the electric baton. What made this worse was that she had diagnosed depression for which she had been taking prescription pills for, which were also taken away.
https://www.globalantiscam.org/post/sex ... -companies
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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Long read.
Excerpt from : https://www.globalantiscam.org/post/vic ... g-scammers
2 August 2022
Victim Sued for Telling His Experiences

Summary:
-Malaysian was misled to Cambodia in April 2022 through a JobStreet job ad, complete with interviews and assurances of government certification
-He was trapped inside Victory Paradise Resort in Sihanoukville, Cambodia with thousands of others to run online scams
-He was caught recording evidence and asking for outside help, and so was punished by starvation, isolation, humiliation and being forced to act while being recorded
-After escaping back to Malaysia he shared his experiences in social media --and in a popular talk show in June 2022
-He immediately got a phone call from a "mediator" from a Malaysian political party telling him to publicly retract, followed by a lawsuit from the HR company.
-He got support from Members of Parliament and distinguished public figures in a press release
-But the lawsuit is still proceeding --and is likely to succeed in getting him impoverished and further in debt.

PART 1: The Cambodia Job

Bilce Tan (陈万庆 or Tan Ban Kheng in Malaysian), 41, father of one, is an ethnic Chinese Malaysian and was a manufacturing plant manager in China. He returned to Malaysia in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Unemployed since then, he found an appealing ad in a popular job board JobStreet.com for a Business Development Lead position in Cambodia, promising RM12,000 a month, plus commission, accommodation, food and airfare. He is not naïve to job scams and human trafficking there, but was won over by 4 phone and video interviews through Microsoft Teams with the recruiter W------ T--, the HR manager A----- W--- and the staffing company owner C---- L--, all Malaysians. The company claims to be local Penang (Malaysian state) based, and that the job was assuredly Penang government certified. The interviewers also said, how could a fellow Penang Malaysian deceive another Penang Malaysian?

Accepting the job offer, Bilce flew to Phnom Penh on May 6, 2022. He was picked up in a large Alphard multi-purpose vehicle by a man, who was later joined by 3 more men at a gas station. He soon realized in the 5-hour car ride that his situation was quickly becoming dire. The men did not allow him to ask questions and only said that they were going to Sihanoukville. Just sit tight, they said, he'll find out when they all get there. They eventually arrived to a site with a seeming over-abundance of uniformed guards, long guns and barbed wires. The guards did a full body check on him. This compound will serve his prison for the next 3 weeks. He was housed in a hostel and not allowed to leave his dorm block at night, supposedly because it is dangerous outside.

His given assignment turned out entirely different from what was discussed in his job interview. In a word, scamming. He was provided 2 days of training in (i.) transferring (scammed) money from a local bank to overseas, (ii.) conducting love and job schemes, (iii.) becoming familiar with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, and (iv.) using their gambling website. His salary also turned out much lower, supposedly because he is still under probation and the company first needs to see his KPIs (Key Performance Indicator). He was charged to drive "customers" online into their fake gambling website, using some given scripts as guide. However, he could not stomach this so-called work as he felt it plain unconscionable, but the management gently warned him to just go along, since Bilce owes the company his air fare, lodging and other living expenses.

This is clearly illegal, he believes. Having foresight and an eye towards justice, he started secretly documenting on his phone the criminal activities inside. He took lots of photos, videos, the company's scam target lists and many other damning evidences. He actually had 3 phones, and he uploaded all evidences in his Google Drive and WeChat drive. The place is called Victory Paradise Resort & Casino in Sihanoukville, owned by the Prince group, a consortium of Chinese and Malaysian businessmen. Bilce reckoned there were about 7,000 people inside, with the majority being mainland Chinese, and the rest being Malaysian, Singaporean, Vietnamese and Indonesians. He found out that many are fugitives from their country's police, but also many are like him, tricked and trapped in these compounds. Inside he saw are many scams companies, and so are drugs, prostitutes and gambling aplenty. However, the majority of the work there allegedly comes from relationship investment frauds conducted on a massive scale.

Unfortunately, one midnight Bilce texted and called his family and a friend, when he thought would be safe. It was a mistake. Somehow the company management discovered and soon 7 - 8 people banged into his dorm room, pressed him to the ground, searched everywhere --and found all his 3 devices. They threw him to a chair, slapped him and forced him to show all his devices' and account's passwords. Afterwards they locked him for what seems like 2 days in a small, smelly, dark room with no lights, where he would all eat, sleep, pee and defecate. All he gets are plates of white rice, nothing else.

The punishment took a strange turn. Bilce was let out, and told to strip his shirt, pants and underwear. They took a video recording of him naked. Afterwards, he was told to do some acting for the camera. He would come out of a car, dressed, say hi to a camera, hug some people, and bring a luggage up some stairs like it was his first time. There were many takes of this. The purpose was as a stand-by video to "prove" that he came to Victory Paradise Resort willingly. All he could do was go along and pray. Finally, the management told him that they will sell him to another compound, getting him further in debt, if he does more rebellious things.

This part will be deliberately vague to protect methods and potentially lives. In what can be described as a miracle, Blice was able to escape. Needless to say it was very risky, and Blice recounts that fellow trafficking victims from Singapore and Vietnam were too scared to join him. Someone Blice calls an angel drove him to the airport and he was able to fly back home to Malaysia on May 28.
Continued here: https://www.globalantiscam.org/post/vic ... g-scammers
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

The Sihanoukville casino resort, Victory Paradise Resort & Casino, mentioned in the cyber-scam article above* is "recruiting" online. Foreigners welcome.
* This is unlikely to be a genuine job offer - proceed with caution. Read : post557995.html#p557995
Image
Company Overview – About Us!

Would you like to contribute to our Company's expansion in Oversea with your knowledge and skills? Welcomes people who are committed to delivering outstanding services and making the future happened. Sound like you?

Image
Victory Paradise Resort & Casino is owned by Victory Paradise Resort Co., Ltd. The resort is located in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. Well-positioned in Victory Beach, Victory Paradise Resort & Casino is the ideal point of departure for your excursions in Sihanoukville. Victory Paradise Resort & Casino is only 1.6 km away from Victory Beach and lively nightlife area. We are set amidst a tropical garden, only 10 minutes’ walk from Sihanoukville Port Autonomous. It is not far from airport, about 23 km away from Sihanoukville International Airport. Besides, there are Office Buildings, Spas & Wellness Centers, Sport Center, Dining places and etc. next to resort which located at the same area.

An international working environment with many opportunities for personal development and attractive benefits await you. If you are motivated to challenge your capabilities and to explore the field of hospitality, entertainment, and property with us, then you are just the right person we are looking for and we’re always looking for talented and passionate people. We offer ample opportunities that empower you to expand your skills and abilities. #hiring #newcareer #jobopportunities #careeradvancement #cambodia
Why Join Us!

Our company was rapidly expanding its operations and is now seeking for experienced and highly committed individuals to join our high-caliber team. We welcome all passionate, young, and energetic people to join the big family. Our door is open to everyone, regardless of their educational or cultural background. We believe that fresh and uniquely innovative ideas stem from the diverse cultures and backgrounds of our people. To spur our employees to achieve greater heights, we cultivate a positive environment that rewards people for their accomplishments.

Please upload your updated Professional CV/resume if you wish to apply for the job. We welcome all passionate and energetic person to join us become part of our big family member.
JOIN US
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

Cambodia is being mentioned more and more often online, in international news items, on blogs and websites - and not always in a good way. However, it seems quite possible, as they say here, that the Chinese crime syndicates are preparing to move some of their online scam bases from Cambodia to Myanmar, where there is less (or no) possibility of scrutiny by SEA law enforcement agencies and also international media.

Cambodia’s new scam “Thailand is dangerous now”! Being deceived into this country cannot be saved !
August 14, 2022 by archyde
The high-paying fraud incident in Cambodia has aroused social attention, and more and more victims have come out to warn and share their painful experiences; many of them have been sexually assaulted, organ trafficking, tortured, imprisoned and other brutal acts. Members of the GASO rescue organization say that the fraudulent jobs in Cambodia , Thailand, and Myanmar are quite dangerous, and it is best to take precautions when seeking work in these countries.

Wang Ruide, a senior media person, said that in addition to Cambodia, Myanmar’s “KK Park” is the main base camp of Chinese fraud groups, known as “the final stop in Southeast Asia”. Six countries now plan to encircle and suppress the online fraudsters, so the main fraudulent group is planning to relocate the park and start elsewhere. In order to exchange piglets for ransom, they will bring the “marked useless” piglets to the sea for organ trading.
[CEO News: As a direct translation, this colloquial expression may be an exaggeration, but there's no denying that this sounds ominous if you translate "piglets" as online slave workers.]

The host mentioned that because the scams in Cambodia have spread, there are many fraud groups planning to “move” to Myanmar. Laos and Thailand have become transit stations for trafficking online workers to Cambodia and Myanmar. People who are tricked into working in Thailand may be resold to Westport (Sihanoukville, Cambodia) or other places in SEA.
https://www.archyde.com/cambodias-new-s ... -setn-com/
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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TAIWAN
Alarmed by job scams, job bank removes 179 overseas job postings
08/16/2022 03:46 PM
Taipei, Aug. 16 (CNA) One of Taiwan's leading online job banks has removed more than 100 overseas job openings posted on its website because of recent concerns over human traffickers' attempts to lure Taiwanese to Cambodia through the promise of high-paying jobs.

Taiwan's 104 Job Bank said Tuesday it has removed 179 job postings in "high-risk countries or areas," including Cambodia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, that have been provided by 37 companies.
https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202208160014
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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Female snakehead arrested for luring 50 Taiwanese into Cambodia
Victims offered NT$100,000 for jobs, some families forced to pay NT$400,000 in ransom
By Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
2022/08/17 11:05
Image
Chang (left) being escorted by police. (CIB photo)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The female mastermind behind a snakehead ring that has trafficked at least 50 Taiwanese to Cambodia was arrested on Monday (Aug. 16).

Amid a recent surge in human trafficking cases of Taiwanese to Cambodia, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) conducted an investigation and found that a criminal group was offering high pay for jobs such as typing in Cambodia, only to force them into engaging in telecom scams. On Monday, CIB officers arrested the 41-year-old female mastermind of the human trafficking ring surnamed Chang (張) and three other suspects and were able to prevent five Taiwanese victims from going to Cambodia, reported ETtoday.

According to a preliminary investigation, Chang, a resident of Changhua City, trafficked at least 50 Taiwanese to Cambodia. Police found Chang and her accomplices operated Facebook and Instagram pages called "Side Jobs" (偏門工作) on which they offered a monthly salary of NT$100,000 (US$3,300) for jobs such as typing, computer work, and server room maintenance.

First, they would take their victims to a hotel, and after obtaining their passport and visa, they would transport them to the Taoyuan International Airport to board a flight out of the country. The victims were accompanied and monitored by snakehead ring members throughout the process.

A preliminary investigation has found that Chang had arranged for 50 people to go abroad over the past three months and the snakeheads received a NT$100,000 fee from the buyers overseas for each victim. Police were also able to stop five other victims from leaving the country.
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4628654
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

Post by MrBen87 »

PICTURES AND VIDEO: Foreign casino workers flee immigration police visit by swimming across border river



I don´t think they were running from immigration
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