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.
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. (NNT)
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