\n
The foundation interviewed nine trafficking victims who said they had been lured by social media advertisements with the promise of well-paid jobs. Instead, they were holed up in shuttered hotel-casinos and guarded compounds. There, they were forced to create fake social media profiles to entice people into online gambling and crypto scams. Those who complained or who performed poorly were threatened or beaten.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
A member of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security spoke to the Cambodian English language newspaper the Khmer Times about Friday\u2019s raid on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
“It has a large yard, mini-mart, and a restaurant inside to cater to the occupants of the building,\u201d <\/strong>he said. \u201cAnother building appears to be under construction, and the Cambodian police have done a great job of nabbing all those in the compound. The entire perimeter of the building had a two-meter-high wall and four layers of razor wire on top.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cInterrogations are continuing, and once completed, we hope the results will be shared with us to enable us to establish several key facts, such as whether they are wanted in China for criminal or organized crime activities, and if they are members of triads,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Police are trying to trace the owner of the compound and to determine whether it was let to anyone else.<\/p>\n
Going Underground <\/strong><\/h2>\nSeveral years ago, Cambodia had a burgeoning licensed online gambling industry, mainly targeted China, where online gambling is illegal. But it caved into pressure from its powerful biggest trading partner, banning the industry from September 2019.<\/p>\n
This has pushed online gambling underground into the hands of criminal elements, whose sideline is in crypto fraud and phishing. The ban has also made it difficult for operators to recruit workers legitimately. It\u2019s believed some of these operations are protected by bribing officials in the notoriously corrupt country.<\/p>\n
Last week, Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi brought up the issue of online gambling and related criminal activities with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong, according to the Khmer Times.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A joint task force comprised of Cambodian and Chinese law enforcement raided a compound in Phnom Penh on Friday, seizing equipment connected to illegal online gaming and internet fraud. More than 200 people were detained at the large, gated complex in the Sen Sok area of the Cambodian capital. These included Chinese, Vietnamese, and other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":186413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Online Gaming, Fraud, Human Trafficking Compound Raided in Cambodia<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n