Cambodia continues raids on scam centers, bringing arrests in past 3 weeks over 2,100

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Authorities in Cambodia continued their stepped-up campaign against online scam centers, arresting at least 500 suspects in two provinces on Thursday and Friday, the country's information minister said.

The arrests in Kandal province on the outskirts of the capital Phnom Penh, and in the northeastern province of Stung Treng, brought to 2,137 the total number detained since June 27, Information Minister Neth Pheaktra said in a statement.

Those netted in raids in 43 locations around the country included 429 Vietnamese, 271 Indonesians, 589 Chinese, 57 Koreans, 70 Bangladeshi and 42 Pakistanis, said his statement. Other suspects were from Thailand, Laos, India, Nepal, the Philippines and Myanmar.

The United Nations and other agencies have estimated that cyberscams, most of them originating from Southeast Asia, earn international criminal gangs billions of dollars annually. The cybercriminals pretend friendship or tout phony investment opportunities to cheat their targets around the world.

Neth Pheaktra's statement said Cambodia's crackdown is ongoing ''and will absolutely continue, with a clear mandate from the top leadership to root out all illegal cybercrime activity — regardless of location or affiliation.''

He said it was strengthened by a directive issued Monday by Prime Minister Hun Manet that threatened state personnel at all levels with transfers or dismissal if they failed to act vigorously against cyberscams.

The latest arrests followed 2,418 others in the first six months of the year involving 18 alleged scam operations in different parts of the country, said a report from the National Police Commissioner cited by Neth Pheaktra.

These resulted in 73 prosecutions and 2,322 foreigners being deported, it said.

Workers at scam centers are often recruited under false pretenses and then held captive to work under tight guard.

''Jobseekers from Asia and beyond are lured by the promise of well-paid work into hellish labour camps run by well-organized gangs, where they are forced to scam under the very real threat of violence,'' the human rights groups Amnesty International said in a report issued last month.

It said the findings of its 18-month investigation into cyberscams ''suggest there has been coordination and possibly collusion between Chinese compound bosses and the Cambodian police, who have failed to shut down compounds despite the slew of human rights abuses taking place inside.'' The kingpins of many online scam operations tend to be ethnic Chinese organized crime bosses, who generally operate outside China in areas with weak law enforcement.

A spokesperson for the Cambodian human rights organization Licadho, which is often critical of the government, noted the country's poor reputation due to cybercrime, and welcomed the crackdown.

''This campaign should have been launched long ago because Cambodia has been criticized by international organizations, the international community, and the United Nations for online fraud in Cambodia, which has affected Cambodia's image, international tourists, investment, security, order, and social security,'' Licadko's operations director Am Sam Ath, told The Associated Press.

''However, launching this campaign is good to demonstrate the Royal Government's determination and willingness to prevent and suppress online fraud and trust,'' he said, noting that other members of the regional Association of Southeast Asian Nations had also acted this year to suppress online crime.