Thousands of Indians trapped in Cambodia, forced to become 'cyber slaves'

Thousands of Indians have reportedly fallen victim to a vicious mafia ring in Cambodia and are allegedly being forced to indulge in cyber crimes against their will.

According to media reports, at least 5,000 Indians are being held captive in Cambodia and are being forced to perpetrate cyber scams against Indians back home.

The Indian government estimates that this massive scam has siphoned off a whopping ₹ 500 crore over the past six months.

The sheer scale of this scam has prompted the two countries to initiate a joint operation and clamp down on this vicious mafia.

“We have seen the media reports on Indian nationals stuck in Cambodia. Our Embassy in Cambodia has been promptly responding to complaints from Indian nationals who were lured with employment opportunities to that country but were forced to undertake illegal cyber work,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

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Around 250 Indians have already been rescued from this scam and have been repatriated, the statement added.

Media reports claim that individuals who were stranded in Cambodia were compelled to pose as law enforcement officers and extort money from people in India by telling them that suspicious items had been discovered in packages they had transported.

Late last year, a senior federal government employee filed a complaint claiming he had been cheated of over ₹ 67 lakh, which alerted the authorities to this big scam. On December 30, the Rourkela Police of Odisha broke a cybercrime gang and detained eight persons who were reportedly involved in smuggling people into Cambodia.

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The men were made to pretend to be women using fictitious social media accounts and images, and they were penalized for missing daily goals. In a nation where they were enticed with the “promise” of a better job, this is how the recruits would pass their days.

Under the guise of employment, the accused brought the men—or the possible con artists—to Cambodia.

She claimed that after arriving, the males were forced to work for businesses that engaged in fraud. These businesses would confiscate their passports, preventing them from leaving, and make them put in 12 hours a day of work.

The Rourkela Police said that in October 2023, the agents persuaded the men to work for a different organization that specialized in investment schemes.

The police have amassed a number of crucial pieces of information, such as the locations of the fraud companies, the personnel that work there, their methods, and the structure of their administration.

Additionally, they have located one high-level agent from Nepal and three high-level operatives from India. “We intend to arrest key players in this scam with the help of Interpol,” she stated.