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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CEOCambodiaNews wrote: Thu Nov 03, 2022 5:33 pm Cambodia’s modern slavery nightmare: the human trafficking sanctioned by authorities
Despite promises by government to eradicate trafficking rings, people are still being sold in Cambodia and forced to run online scams
Meanwhile mum's are arrested in the province for passing the time playing cards. :facepalm:
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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atst wrote: Thu Nov 03, 2022 9:18 pm
CEOCambodiaNews wrote: Thu Nov 03, 2022 5:33 pm Cambodia’s modern slavery nightmare: the human trafficking sanctioned by authorities
Despite promises by government to eradicate trafficking rings, people are still being sold in Cambodia and forced to run online scams
Meanwhile mum's are arrested in the province for passing the time playing cards. :facepalm:
"Passing the time", while they sit on their asses, waiting for money to be sent from their young daughters, that they sent off/sold off to "work" in the city, and their 18 yr old sons sleep in the hammock.
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

And so it goes on...

Thousands trapped inside Cambodia's scam operations
By AFP
Published: November 09, 2022 06:07 AM GMT

Trafficked, beaten and locked up far from his family in China, Lu was one of thousands of people in Cambodia forced to operate online scams to line their captors' pockets.

Covid shutdowns had left the builder out of work, so when he heard he could earn $2,000 a month on a construction project in Cambodia, he jumped at the chance.

But he soon realised he had been lured by a scamming gang to a compound in the seaside resort of Sihanoukville, along with hundreds of others.

There he was forced to work 12 to 16 hour shifts, trawling social media and dating apps on a hunt for victims to scam out of huge sums.

"Once I arrived it was too late to escape," Lu told AFP. "But as long as I was alive, I would keep trying."

People from countries around Asia -- including Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Bangladesh and India -- have been sucked into similar operations.

Some, like 34-year-old Lu, have made it out, though thousands of others are feared still trapped.

In August, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, Vitit Muntarbhorn, said the trafficking victims "were experiencing a living hell often resulting in torture and even death".
Article: https://www.ucanews.com/news/thousands- ... ions/99360
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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TAIWAN UPDATE
4 indicted in connection with Cambodia fraud operation
11/12/2022 07:27 PM
Taipei, Nov. 12 (CNA) Prosecutors in Pingtung announced the indictment of four people Saturday in connection with forcing individuals to work for a Cambodia-based telecoms fraud operation.

According to prosecutors, three women identified by their last names Chen (陳), Lai (賴), and Chou (周), and a man surnamed Lin (林), were indicted Thursday on charges related to organized crime, fraudulently causing someone to leave Taiwan for financial gain, and forging documents.

The suspects allegedly used fake job advertisements promising base salaries of NT$40,000 (US$1,285) to lure Taiwanese nationals to Cambodia, prosecutors said.

The three female suspects in the group each played differing roles, ranging from recruiting new hires, to personnel matters, prosecutors added.

Lin, meanwhile, was responsible for preparing all the necessary arrangements in Taiwan before the new hires departed for Cambodia, including providing forged COVID-19 vaccine certificates mandatory for international travel, prosecutors said.

According to prosecutors, they have identified 10 people as having been duped by the suspects into going to Cambodia.
(By Lee Hui-ting and Ko Lin)
https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202211120014
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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Another shocking tale of cyberslavery in Cambodia :
16-hour work surrounded by armed men, shock treatment: Tamil Nadu man who fell for job scam recalls torture in Cambodia
Needhi Rajan said they were given instructions on when to eat and sleep. Their building was guarded by security personnel with arms, he said.

Written by Janardhan Koushik
Chennai | Updated: November 15, 2022 4:14:55 pm
Image
Rajan, a diploma graduate, and M Ashok Manikumar (right), an engineering graduate from Tiruchirapalli, were among the Indians who returned from Cambodia recently after falling for a job scam.

Needhi Rajan N still trembles as he recalls the torture he had to undergo in Cambodia. Working for 16 hours daily, eating only boiled rice and getting shock treatment; the 25-year-old from Pirabugaloor in Tamil Nadu’s Ramanathapuram district endured it all.

Rajan, a diploma graduate, and M Ashok Manikumar, 25, an engineering graduate from Uraiyur, were among the Indians who returned from Cambodia recently after falling for a job scam.

Rajan told indianexpress.com that during the Covid-19 pandemic, he was left with no work and in May this year, he came in contact with N Mahadeer Mohammed of Kolundurai, a school junior, who informed him that he works as an agent in Cambodia and there was a vacancy for data entry role.

Rajan and Manikumar were informed that they can receive up to $1,000 per month in Cambodia. But they were asked to pay Rs 2.5 lakh upfront for ticket and visa expenses.

Mahadeer later contacted Rajan from Cambodia and asked him whether they had readied the amount needed to be paid for the visa expenses. The duo then provided half of the amount to Mahadeer’s mother N Sayed Ruhani and the rest through GooglePay to Mahadeer in June. Within a few days, Mahadeer sent them tickets to Cambodia.

“On our arrival in Cambodia in June this year, Mahadeer visited us and took our passport and said it was needed for the business visa process. We were told that in Cambodia, there was an option to convert a tourist visa to a business visa on arrival. We were then taken to a guest house. Mahadeer informed us that the guest house belonged to the Chinese company we were going to work for,” said Rajan.

Within two days, they got a call for an interview and were selected for the job. However, when they entered the company, it looked like a typical jail cell, said Rajan.

“We were given instructions on when to eat and sleep. We were not allowed to go out either… We had to be in our room or office. The entire area was guarded by security personnel with arms. If we needed anything we could go to the second floor and buy some local food,” he said.

Rajan noted that there were around eight companies in their building and close to 3,000 people from different nations like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Malaysia were working there. He said when they started working, they came to know that they were brought there to do scam work and not data entry.

“We were told to do night shifts. We would start working at 10 pm and it went for 15-16 hours. We called Mahadeer and told him that everything was illegal there and that we did not want to be a part of it. He asked us to stay calm for a few days and said he would provide us with an alternative job and look for a few others to replace us there. The food was very bad. There was nothing except boiled rice to eat. Our health was affected badly,” he said.

Explaining the modus operandi of the scam work, Rajan said the company would create fake profiles for their employees on all social media platforms and force them to interact with wealthy customers in the USA posing as women. They were to persuade these customers to invest in share markets and other business deals run by their company. He said they would use the services of local models and make them speak to the customers on video calls. They would make the customers believe that the person with whom they are interacting on social media was real.

“We were promised $1,000 per month but were provided $800 only. When we checked with Mahadeer, he again said he would do something. We were tortured if we failed to achieve our target of two new customers per day. We were scolded, made to kneel, beaten and provided shock treatment. We were mentally depressed. Fortunately, the Cambodian government took some action and raided all these companies doing scam work. Our company was shut and the employees were taken to a detention centre. From there, we wrote to The Indian embassy,” he added.

Rajan claimed that the officials told them that if their embassy was willing to take measures to take them back, they could go home. After multiple attempts, he said, they managed to get their passports from their agent. Since they were brought on a tourist visa and had stayed in Cambodia for more than 15 days, they were told to pay a fine amount for their extended stay. He added that the Indian embassy informed them that they cannot interfere in the matter and they had to pay the fine amount.

“We checked with our agent and told him to send the amount as he was the one who brought us here on a tourist visa. He kept delaying and later we learned that he had sold us to the Chinese company for $3,000. We somehow managed to get the passport from him and through our families and friends, settled the fine amount of Rs 1.5 lakh and with the help of the Tamil Nadu government, we returned home last month. Around 11 others from different parts of the country also managed to reach their hometowns. We then approached Mahadeer’s mother and told her to return our money but in a very arrogant manner, she said her son gave us the job. We earned from it and she could do nothing, she said,” Rajan added.
https://indianexpress.com/article/citie ... a-8269333/
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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The Malaysians who refuse to be repatriated from Cambodia are working for the syndicates, says a Malaysian victim of Chinese gangs in Sihanoukville.

Johor job scam victim recounts being tortured, sold off five times in Cambodia’s Sihanoukville
Updated 3 Hours Ago
KUANTAN - From getting shocked with cattle prods and being brutally beaten up, a Malaysian cook suffered months of agonising torture as a victim of a job scam before he successfully escaped.

Mr See, 23, from Tangkak, Johor, had been tricked by an acquaintance who told him of a job offer to work at a restaurant in Cambodia.

He met with the contact person in Johor Jaya, who bought him a meal and offered him a drink. It was then that Mr See fell unconscious and was taken across the border by land and to Sihanoukville, Cambodia.

“As I recall, it took about five days to get there. I was put to work by a syndicate doing love scams using Whatsapp, Instagram and Facebook.

“They set my target at US$50,000 (S$68,577) a week and would beat me up or torture me with cattle prods if I could not scam enough victims,” said Mr See on Friday.

Mr See’s arms and legs were covered with grisly scars from getting shocked with cattle prods. He also had a fracture in his left foot from getting beaten up by the syndicate members.

Mr See said he was sold five times to different syndicate groups during his time in Sihanoukville.

He eventually managed to contact incumbent Teruntum assemblyman Sim Chon Siang through a friend in Kuantan.

Mr Sim said that for four months, Mr See would message him two to three times every week whenever he got tortured.

“He begged me to save him but getting victims out of Sihanoukville is a very difficult task. The syndicate would move him around to different locations and whenever I pass the information to our Malaysian authorities, the syndicate would somehow know about it and then torture See and move him again,” said Mr Sim.

In September, Mr See saw an opportunity to escape during a police raid in Sihanoukville and Mr Sim advised him to quickly make a run for it.
“I told him to get to Phnom Penh because my contacts are there and can help him,” Mr Sim said.

Mr Sim also slammed Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah for claiming that some of the victims refused to come back.

“That’s because they are not victims but rather, they are the supervisors. These are Malaysians who supervise the other job scam victims and are part of the syndicate,” he said.


In October, Mr Saifuddin reportedly told the Dewan Rakyat that some job scam victims in Cambodia refused to return home despite the government’s efforts to rescue them.
In full: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-as ... anoukville
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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How the scammers targeting Australians are being scammed themselves
By Anna Patty
November 23, 2022 — 2.00am
Organised crime gangs are luring workers with fraudulent job offers and forcing them to take part in multibillion-dollar cyber scams to swindle Australians and people in other wealthy countries.

The gangs target tech-savvy English and Mandarin speakers in South-East Asia and force them to run cyber scams from abandoned casinos with armed security and razor wire, according to the International Justice Mission, a non-government organisation focused on human trafficking.

“We have heard from witness testimonies that Australians are being targeted with these scams,” Jake Sims who leads IJM in Cambodia and said they are run like professional call centres. “The operations are quite sophisticated. They look like sales floors.”

The growth in organised scam operations comes as Australian authorities grapple with the impact of high-profile cyberattacks such as those against Optus and Medibank customers whose personal details have been leaked on the dark web where they can be exploited by scammers.

The Australian Federal Police told the Herald that malicious cyber activity against Australians was increasing in frequency, scale and impact. The Australian Cyber Security Centre has received more than 76,000 cybercrime reports over the past financial year, up 13 per cent on the previous 12 months.

“The AFP works proactively with Cambodian law enforcement to combat transnational crime of shared concern, including cybercrime,” an AFP spokeswoman said.“[It] is increasingly seeing the use of the internet and digital platforms in the recruitment and exploitation of victims.”

IJM estimates that cybercrime syndicates generate up to $US12 billion a year from slavery-fuelled scamming operations in Cambodia alone.

“From what we have heard from witness testimonies, each of those online scammers is generating $US300 to $US400 per day in revenue for the syndicate. And 100,000 labourers in this industry [in Cambodia] is a conservative estimate,” Sims said.

“That is a massive amount of money leaving wealthy countries and going to transnational crime groups. It’s a globally compelling story when you understand the sheer scale of human and financial exploitation.”
https://www.watoday.com.au/business/con ... 5bysk.html
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

One Malaysian and Two Russians Rescued from Cyberslavery in Cambodia
Image
Cambodia News (Phnom Penh): On Wednesday afternoon, 23 November 2022, General Khieu Sopheak, Secretary of State and spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said that Cambodian authorities have received two more requests to rescue 3 foreigners; onewas on Nov21, and the other on the 22nd of November 2022. The spokesman stated that the requests were to rescue one Malaysian national and two Russians.
General Khieu Sopheak added that based on current research of foreigners in captivity, as of 22 November 2022 the requests were included in the monitoring list of Samdech Sar Kheng. The list currently has a total of 609 cases, with 1,514 people involved.

Thus far the Ministry has investigated 324 requests and closed 137 cases in which they rescued 732 people, arrested 88 suspects, closed 5 companies, and suspended 4 companies.
However, the Ministry is Continuing to open research and investigation operations in 148 cases.

It should be noted that the Royal Government of Cambodia has also continued its strong commitment to comply with the law in force to combat cyber fraud and extortion, drug offenses, money laundering, and illegal online gambling. The government also strives to continue supporting and rescuing both Cambodian and foreign victims of trafficking abroad as well as victims of trafficking in Cambodia.
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

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CEOCambodiaNews wrote: Wed Nov 23, 2022 1:37 pm How the scammers targeting Australians are being scammed themselves
By Anna Patty
November 23, 2022 — 2.00a

IJM estimates that cybercrime syndicates generate up to $US12 billion a year from slavery-fuelled scamming operations in Cambodia alone.

“From what we have heard from witness testimonies, each of those online scammers is generating $US300 to $US400 per day in revenue for the syndicate. And 100,000 labourers in this industry [in Cambodia] is a conservative estimate,” Sims said.

“That is a massive amount of money leaving wealthy countries and going to transnational crime groups. It’s a globally compelling story when you understand the sheer scale of human and financial exploitation.”
https://www.watoday.com.au/business/con ... 5bysk.html
These numbers are huge. No wonder the people in charge only play lip service in thier attempt to stop it.
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Re: Cyber slavery: inside Cambodia's online scam gangs (UPDATED)

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

November 30, 2022
9 more foreigners request intervention by anti-trafficking authorities
Khmer Times

The Ministry of Interior has stated that the Cambodian authorities have received 9 more requests in the last 24 hours from foreigners who say they have been trafficked into Cambodia

The spokesman said the six requests were for the rescue of eight Chinese and one Vietnamese.

The Ministry stated that, to date, they have reacted to a total of 620 cases with 1,530 people

After preliminary investigation, they have found found 747 trafficked people people, arrested 90 suspects and closed 5 companies

147 cases are currently ongoing.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501193497/ ... thorities/
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