Hundreds of Thais rescued from Chinese scams in Cambodia

It is normal for intermediaries to come and recruit workers in rural areas of Thailand. But in this case, it was a recruiter for the Cambodian scam gang. “If I had known that in this job I had to rip off my compatriots, I would never have done it,” says the anonymous Thai.

“Investigation for fraud”

Employees, for example, posed as agents over the phone. They had to say that someone with the identity of the called party had committed fraud. They then asked them to transfer money to prove that they had no connection with the fraudster. “So I transferred all my money,” victim Mon told the news channel. The 37-year-old never saw the amount again.

The callers say they had to extort at least 500,000 baht a month from unsuspecting people. This is converted into more than 13,000 euros. If the “employees” didn’t, they risked being sold to another gang.

Not focused on China

“Everyone wants to leave, but no one has the money to redeem themselves,” said another victim of the criminal organization. According to the police, this costs several thousand euros per release.

It is estimated that the gang earns more than a quarter of a million euros a day from scams. “These gangs are springing up like mushrooms,” a Thai police spokesman said. According to him, the Chinese authorities pay little attention to this kind of criminal organizations because the scam does not target China or its citizens.