A total of 64 South Korean citizens took a scheduled flight and landed at Incheon International Airport on Saturday, October 18, South Korean authorities said. Previously, on October 15, South Korea sent a delegation to Cambodia to negotiate cases of its citizens being scammed into work or kidnapped into fraud centers.
South Korean National Security Advisor Wi Sung Lac said the detainees included voluntary and involuntary participants in fraud. Cambodia said the return was the result of good cooperation in cracking down on fraud between the two countries.
Seoul officials estimate that there are about 1,000 South Korean citizens among a total of about 200,000 people working in fraud in Cambodia.
Many people in these scams are forced to commit a particularly sophisticated form of cryptocurrency investment fraud. Accordingly, they have to spend weeks, even months, chatting, creating a close and trustworthy relationship with victims online. Once they have gained the trust of the "prey", they will lure the victim to invest all his money in a fake exchange and then suddenly disappear.
According to experts, this billion-dollar illegal industry has exploded in Cambodia in recent years. Thousands of people are committing online scams, some are voluntary, others are being forced by organized crime groups.
The International Humanitarian Organization said that there are at least 53 fraud complexes nationwide where criminal groups organize human trafficking, forced labor, torture and detain enslavement.
Cambodia's cybercrime prevention committee said the authorities had arrested 3,455 online fraud suspects nationwide from 20 Asian and African countries since late June. More than 2,800 foreigners have been deported and the government has "rescued some victims of human trafficking".
The problem became especially painful after the recent death of a Korean university student in Cambodia. The student, believed to have been kidnapped and tortured by a criminal gang, was found dead in a pickup truck on August 8. The autopsy showed that he " died of brutal torture, with multiple bruises and injuries all over his body". South Korean police said they will also conduct a joint investigation into the incident.
