Some very strange stories come out of Cambodia and this is one of them:
July 27, 2023
Mystery as foreign woman in $1.4 million kidnapping case found ‘alone in Cambodian hotel’

Police say that a foreign woman – whose parents appealed to authorities for help after receiving a video message that she was being held in Cambodia for a ransom of over $1 million – has been found alone and unharmed in a hotel in Cambodia.

The General Commission of the National Police spoke about the complicated case involving the deception of a Chinese girl who was studying in Japan and came to Cambodia, in a press conference yesterday.

Through a press conference, Brigadier General Ky Vannara, a member of the Foreign Hotline Working Group of the National Police General Commission, stated that on July 19, 2023, the National Police of Cambodia received information through the Facebook page of Samdech Krala Hom Sar Kheng, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister.

YI, a Chinese woman living in Japan, asked Cambodian authorities to intervene to find and rescue her 19-year-old daughter, LAN, a university student in Japan, who was being held hostage in Cambodia.

The search and rescue intervention comes after the mother lost contact with her daughter on July 15, 2023,

On July 17, 2023, an unidentified person called to say that her daughter was in their custody in Cambodia, accompanied by photos and videos, and asked for 200 million yen ($ 1.4 million) as a ransom

After receiving the mother’s complaint, the police force of the National Police Commission and the General Department of Immigration cooperated in the search and as a result found the girl at a hotel, staying alone and without any risk of kidnapping.

But in fact, the girl was not kidnapped by the perpetrators, neither the women nor the perpetrators met, and she did not know where the criminals are based, having just spoke to them via the phone

According to the girl’s interrogation, on July 5, 2023, an unidentified person called to say that he was a Chinese police officer who was investigating the crime against her because the police had arrested one of the perpetrators – who the man claimed was involved in the crime of money laundering via the girl’s bank account

She was threatened with secrecy and was told that if she informed, she would be arrested and the whole family would be in trouble.

The girl was instructed by the perpetrator to

* Give them her LINE communication account used to communicate with the mother

* To transfer all the money in the account to them – the girl transferred 75,000 yen ( About $ 5,000)

* She is required to earn an additional 5 million yen (approximately $ 35,000) to deposit into the account and transfer to them

Due to her not being able to earn the required amount of money, the perpetrator told her to travel to Cambodia to find a place to buy nail polish, scissors, scotch tape, mark the injuries, then prepare a video of herself acting as a kidnap victim and send the videos to the perpetrators.

Upon receiving the video of the victim, the perpetrator forwarded it to her family for extortion of 200 million yen (approximately $ 1.4 million), followed by negotiations for 30 million yen (approximately $ 210,000).

At that time, the family of the victim in Japan complained to the Facebook page of Samdech Krala Hom Sar Kheng, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior.

After finding the victim, Cambodian authorities contacted her family living in Japan to pick up their child, claiming she had not been abducted in Cambodia.

The authorities have returned her to her family and she left Cambodia on the evening of July 26, 2023.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501332316/ ... ian-hotel/