Police Raid Cambodian Phone Scamming Gang to Rescue Captive Thai Workers

[snoop1130]

 

BANGKOK (NNT) - Thai and Cambodian police have rescued Thai nationals held captive by a gang operating a phone scam center in Cambodia.

 

According to assistant national police chief Pol Lt-General Surachate Hakparn, a raid jointly conducted by the Royal Thai Police and Cambodian authorities rescued 24 Thai nationals from a phone scamming gang in Sihanoukville.

 

Victims told police they were deceived into joining the gang with promises of online sales jobs that included lodging and transportation. Facing financial issues due to the ongoing pandemic, they accepted the offer and later found themselves imprisoned inside guarded buildings.

 

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Each captive Thai said they were forced to ’scam’ other people thousands of dollars per month, or face being sold to another gang if they could not reach those targets.

 

Pol Lt-General Surachate stated that the gang targets poor villagers who are in need of income between harvest seasons. Many people are duped into forced labor in factories and on fishing boats, or, more recently, in scam centers, where they are exploited by criminal syndicates and are unable to escape.

 

He affirmed that authorities from both countries will continue working together to safely return all scam victims to Thailand and bring those responsible for the crime to justice.

 

-- © Copyright NNT 2022-04-15

 

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[mvdf]

The title is wrong, deceptive, defamatory and misleading. The gang is not Cambodian. It is a Chinese-led, Chinese-staffed, Chinese-managed and Chinese-controlled phone scamming operation. 

[Burma Bill]

3 hours ago, mvdf said:

The title is wrong, deceptive, defamatory and misleading. The gang is not Cambodian. It is a Chinese-led, Chinese-staffed, Chinese-managed and Chinese-controlled phone scamming operation. 

Very much so and not only Thai nationals - also Malaysians, Indonesians, Vietnamese among others.

 

"Thai and Cambodian police uncovered and broke up what they said was part of a wider Chinese-run transnational crime racket that has ensnared thousands of people from around Asia ................."

"The workers are lured to Cambodia through social media advertisements promising high-paying jobs, but are then forced by racketeers to make scam calls in their own languages"

 

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/cambodia-scam-call-centres-police-crackdown-frees-66-thai-nationals-2622016

[internationalism]

as a background, that is an article from a month ago

"Thais lured into Cambodia for illegal businesses as border closed"

https://prachatai.com/english/node/9741

[2008bangkok]

5 hours ago, internationalism said:

as a background, that is an article from a month ago

"Thais lured into Cambodia for illegal businesses as border closed"

https://prachatai.com/english/node/9741

Im pretty sure TV posted.in FB a month ago, just repeat later, 

Its all about the.clicks.

[hotchilli]

On 4/15/2022 at 5:27 PM, snoop1130 said:

Victims told police they were deceived into joining the gang with promises of online sales jobs that included lodging and transportation. Facing financial issues due to the ongoing pandemic, they accepted the offer and later found themselves imprisoned inside guarded buildings.

Lesson learnt... do not go to Sihanoukville and work for any Chinese.

[mtls2005]

On 4/15/2022 at 5:27 PM, snoop1130 said:

Victims told police they were deceived into joining the gang with promises of online sales jobs

 

On 4/15/2022 at 5:27 PM, snoop1130 said:

that the gang targets poor villagers

 

 

 

 

Sorry, but this just doesn't add up. I'd believe the "organ harvesting" gang story before this one.

 

 

"Poor villagers" telemarketing what exactly? And to whom?

 

 

 

Now if you told me they were running click farms I'd believe that.

 

 

On 4/15/2022 at 5:27 PM, snoop1130 said:

Each captive Thai said they were forced to ’scam’ other people thousands of dollars per month, or face being sold to another gang if they could not reach those targets.

 

Again, this just doesn't make sense. Why would I "buy" a salesperson who failed to meet their quota working somewhere else?

 

 

 

 

 

[jvs]

6 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry, but this just doesn't add up. I'd believe the "organ harvesting" gang story before this one.

 

 

"Poor villagers" telemarketing what exactly? And to whom?

 

 

 

Now if you told me they were running click farms I'd believe that.

 

 

 

Again, this just doesn't make sense. Why would I "buy" a salesperson who failed to meet their quota working somewhere else?

 

 

 

 

 

Girls and women are being sold for something else.

 

[sammieuk1]

Outrageous this could never happen here could it ????

[RafPinto]

The friendly Scheinese again.

 

There must be thousands of poor village women lured into high paying hotel or massage jobs abroad but end up... we all know where.

[Mr Meeseeks]

Now it is Chinese gangs but it used to be Brits, Yanks and Aussies working out of Bangkok and scamming vulnerable pensioners in 'boiler room' scams for many years in the 90's and 00's.

 

A lot of well known bars and bar complexes were built on stolen pensioners' money and ran by former boiler room criminals. Many of whom are still living in Thailand and have Police connections, hence very few caught and properly punished even when Western authorities got involved.

 

When I first arrived here they were prominently located in offices on Sukhumvit and Silom areas, and could be easily identified in bars around lower/mid Sukhumvit in particular. 

 

Some of them have stuck around as 'financial advisors'.

Edited April 17, 2022 by Mr Meeseeks