Zhou Wenyin, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Cambodian National Committee for Counter Trafficking (NCCT), revealed that the domestic online fraud gangs are mainly controlled by criminals from China and Vietnam, involving victims from at least 17 countries.
These criminal groups are well-organized and covert, becoming a key target for the Cambodian government's crackdown.
During an interview at the launch ceremony of the "Hope and Care for Survivors of Human Trafficking and Online Fraud" project, Zhou Wenyin stated that recent crackdowns in Cambodia have shown that the masterminds behind these fraud groups often come from China and Vietnam, and also recruit personnel from Sri Lanka, India, and other countries.
She pointed out that fraud crimes are no longer confined to the Southeast Asia region, but have even spread to the UK, the USA, and other places, making it more difficult to track down the masterminds. "Currently, we can only arrest the specific operators at the fraud centers, but the real masterminds behind the scenes are still hard to pinpoint," she emphasized. Despite the daunting task, the Cambodian government's goal is to destroy as many fraud bases as possible, even completely eradicating these criminal networks.
Zhou Wenyin candidly said that each operation requires a large police force, proportional to the scale of the criminals, otherwise the situation may get out of control. Additionally, Cambodia faces international scrutiny over illegal detentions and human rights violations during law enforcement. To address this, the government is cooperating with embassies from various countries to promote the repatriation of arrested individuals and accelerate the cleanup of the fraud industry chain.
In recent years, several Southeast Asian countries, including Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar, have become high-risk areas for online fraud and human trafficking.
In response, the Cambodian government has established a committee to combat online fraud, led by Prime Minister Hun Manet, which aims to strengthen law enforcement and international cooperation to further curb online fraud activities.
The Cambodian government calls for international cooperation to jointly address the increasingly rampant transnational fraud crimes, to effectively protect the rights of victims, and to severely punish the masterminds behind the scenes.
