60 Indians Forced Into Cyber Fraud In Cambodia Rescued, To Return Home

The Indian authorities have rescued 60 Indians fraudulently taken to Cambodia and forced into cyber fraud by trafficking rackets. The Indian Embassy announced that they are in constant touch with Cambodian authorities to bring back the rescued Indians. 

60 🇮🇳 nationals have been rescued by the Embassy in cooperation with Sihanoukville(SHV)authority. These nationals, victims of fraudulent employment, were sent from SHV to PhnomPenh today. Embassy is assisting with travel documents & other arrangements for their early return home. https://t.co/S7Q3jmFlAw pic.twitter.com/2mDOeNJqxD

— India in Cambodia (@indembcam) May 22, 2024

This comes after around 150 Indians protested in Cambodia to get their passports back from their handlers to return home. According to the police, 150 people from Visakhapatnam and nearby areas are stuck in Cambodia for over a year now and are being forced to commit cyber crimes and ponzi frauds. These people were reportedly lured with offers of jobs such as data entry operators in Singapore but were taken to Cambodia and forced into committing cyber scams by Chinese handlers.

According to Ravi Shankar Ayyanar, Visakhapatnam Police Commissioner, around 5,000 people from across India are trapped in Cambodia in "inhumane" conditions. "It is quite alarming that 5,000 Indians have been working there for the last two years in inhumane conditions. They're not being given good if their performance is not good enough according to their handlers, they are starved for days. These were confessions made by those who managed to escape and approached us for help."

In India, young people looking for job opportunities are recruited by unregistered agents and are then sent to Cambodia via Bangkok or Singapore, said Ravi Shankar Ayyanar. "At the airport in Bangkok or Singapore, the Cambodian agents take over. These young people are literally sold and those Indian agents get paid," he said. 

From Singapore or Thailand, these people are taken to a place called Poipet, located at Thailand-Cambodia border where lies an exclusive economic zone run by the Chinese handlers, said Ravi Shankar Ayyanar. "These young people are trained in various cyber frauds. They are given intense training of a week or 10 days on committing cyber frauds such as the ongoing fedex courier scams, fake stock market investment frauds, task games, cryptocurrency frauds, honey trap and more," he added. 

The Visakhapatnam police arrested three people - Chukka Rajesh, S Kondala Rao and M Jnaneshwar Rao - on human trafficking charges on May 18 for trafficking Indians to Cambodia.

Till now, Indians have been duped of hundreds of crores of rupees through such online frauds. In Visakhapatnam alone, which is considered a hotspot for cyber frauds, people have been cheated of around 120 crore rupees in the last 12-18 months.