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Cambodia and South Korea said on Thursday that a delegation of South Korean lawmakers National Assembly Visited a building in Cambodia that was allegedly used by an online scam operation involving dozens of people South Korean,
The South Koreans were detained by Cambodian police and deported back to South Korea earlier this month, where authorities have accused them of involvement in fraud including romance scams and fake investments, apparently targeting fellow South Koreans at home.
Members of the assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Integration Committee inspected the site on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital on Wednesday. phnom penhWhere dozens of South Koreans were detained during an action on July 5.
Cambodia’s Commission on Online Crime said Cambodian police shared materials with the visiting delegation that showed South Korean citizens worked at the scam center voluntarily without any force or threat.
prisoners He was brought back on October 18 on a chartered flight from Phnom Penh to South Korea, where authorities said at the time that they were trying to determine whether South Koreans were forced to work in the scams.
South Korean police said earlier in the week that local courts have so far issued arrest warrants for 49 of the 64 people returned from South Korea, and arrest warrants for additional returnees are being considered. Police has said the suspects are accused of engaging in romance scams, fraudulent investment pitches or voice phishing.
Online scams, many of which are based in Southeast Asian countries, have grown exponentially since the COVID-19 pandemic and have given rise to two types of victims: thousands of people who have been forced to act as scammers under threat of violence, and the targets of their fraud. Watchdog groups say international criminal gangs earn billions of dollars annually from online scams.
Over the past four months, police in Cambodia have raided 92 locations in 18 provinces and arrested 3,455 people from 20 countries, Cambodian officials said. Most were victims and have already been deported from Cambodia. Seventy-five people believed to be behind the scams have been charged in a Cambodian court.