PHNOM PENH: The Cambodian authorities have arrested more than 200 Vietnamese in internet scam centre raids, the police said on Wednesday (Jul 16), as Prime Minister Hun Manet ordered a crackdown on cybercrime sweatshops.
The United Nations (UN) has described Southeast Asia as the “ground zero” of scam centres, where workers typically use romance or business as a pretext to defraud social media users of an estimated US$40 billion yearly.
Hun Manet issued a directive made public on Tuesday, telling law enforcement and the military “to prevent and crack down on online scams”, warning that they risk losing their jobs if they fail to take action.
The police in the capital Phnom Penh said that they raided two buildings housing scammers on Monday and Tuesday, arresting 149 Vietnamese alongside three Chinese citizens and 85 Cambodians.
In the coastal city of Sihanoukville, raids on Tuesday at four locations saw 63 Vietnamese arrested and 54 computers seized, a police report seen by AFP on Wednesday showed.
Many of those freed from Southeast Asian scam centres said that they were trafficked or lured there under false pretences.
Abuses in Cambodia’s scam centres are happening on a “mass scale”, a report published last month by the Amnesty International said.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/cambodia-arrest-200-vietnam-citizens-cyberscam-crackdown-raid-5241241
