At a press conference on September 16, General Thatchai Pitanebutr - Inspector General of the Police and Head of the Thai Cybercrime Prevention Task Force (PCT) - said that the Cambodian side has committed to launching a campaign to crack down on online fraud hotspots within the next month, focusing on hot spots that Thailand provided information. Meanwhile, Bangkok will monitor the effectiveness of the campaign through online complaint data from victims.
The high-level meeting took place after the Thailand - Cambodia Joint Border Commission (GBC) Conference on September 10, in Koh Kong province, where the two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation against high-tech crimes and cross-border fraud rings.
General Thatchai emphasized that online fraud gangs not only cause financial losses but also cause thousands of Thai citizens to fall into mental crisis. He also affirmed that Thailand has handed Cambodia a detailed list of "groups" to serve the investigation and extortion.
On the Cambodian side, led by Deputy Commander of the National Police Seang Sarid, pledged to quickly deploy the overall plan. The results of the campaigns will be reported at the next GBC meeting.
According to observers, the negotiations lasted up to 10 hours, reflecting the complexity of the problem, from coordinating the investigation, handling the subject to managing the victims who were lured to participate. However, with the new agreement, this is considered a clear step forward in the joint efforts of Bangkok and Phnom Penh to stop the "online scam nightmare" that is spreading suffering to tens of thousands of families in the two countries.
