The victims of tech scams in Cambodia are all over the world. However, that is just the very tip of the iceberg.
Labor fraud in Cambodia is a sore problem. That is not too strange for East Asian and Southeast Asian countries, which are famous for their inhumanity and aggression in their treatment of workers and their extremely sophisticated scam tricks for many people around the world.
These scam companies are not only defrauding their “customers,” but also their own employees. For the “customers” that these companies target, they will use all kinds of tricks to scam all the money. Scam companies become an obsession for the company’s employees.
Fraudulent tricks and human trafficking occur throughout East and Southeast Asia. With sweet words like “low-paying job,” “no degree required,” “paid training,” and “all expenses covered,”… Labor in Cambodia has had many victims in all provinces and cities. trap and exploit, and work and live like “hell on earth” in Cambodia.
Workers are beaten with batons and electric canes and forced to work eight-hour shifts; unpaid overtime is common. But that’s not all for these scam companies. Our article below will provide full information about this hell.
Complete information about scam companies in Cambodia
If you have ever been scammed by scam companies in Cambodia, then remember that you are not the only one being scammed as they also scam people working for their company. The information that we share below may shock you, so make sure your mind is in the best possible state.
What is Tech Scam in Cambodia?
Scam companies in Cambodia are mostly set up by the Chinese. They trick their workers into working as slaves. Since then, the victims have created fake accounts online to scam others on a global scale.
Chinese scams have been rampant in Cambodia in recent years. The cause of the Chinese scammer boom in Cambodia is complex, but the initiative that plays a key role in this boom in scam companies is the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Shawn Lin (an overseas Chinese living in New Zealand) pointed out this issue in a commentary on The Epoch Times on February 24.
Cambodia’s Sihanoukville or Kampong Som city has become Cambodia’s largest foreign trade center and seaport since the city joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative. But Sihanoukville has also been turned into “a playground for Chinese criminal
As a major gambling capital, the gambling spots in Sihanoukville attract a large number of Chinese. Apart from offline casinos, online gambling is even more popular, as it has no geo-restrictions.
There are more than 200 direct flights between China and Cambodia every week starting in 2017. At its peak, the number of Chinese in Sihanoukville amounted to 500,000. This can also shows that the number of workers moving to Cambodia to work for these scam companies is not small.
Chinese-run casinos abound in Sihanoukville. Most internet gambling developers operate the site in Sihanoukville and attract digital finance from all over the world.
Services of scam companies in Cambodia
Tech scams are just a small part of the overall scam industry in Cambodia. In essence, these companies provide a wide range of services to their “customers.” These companies operate websites that provide betting games, online gambling, football betting, etc. to gamblers worldwide.
In addition to betting and gambling-related websites, these companies also specialize in online property fraud. Employees in the company play many roles as actors and cheat the gullible.
Of course, even they—the employees working in these companies—are also victims of labor scams. And this is their job; they are forced to do it if they don’t want to be punished.
In addition, the bosses of these companies will also link up with many criminal gangs to handle unqualified employees. This can be seen as an inhuman form of dismissal because these gangs run prostitution organizations. If the female employees of these scam companies do not meet the quota, they will be sold as commodities to prostitution organizations.
Social violence and gang crime in scam companies in Cambodia
Behind every casino, gangsters from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are almost always present. There are also Cambodian police or government officials. Cambodian gendarmes also work part-time as security guards and drivers for gambling dens.
This is the nightmare of those who work for scam companies. Workers are like the sky before a storm when they arrive in Cambodia to face hell on earth.
Workers in East and Southeast Asian countries are deceived by the sweet words of social media fraud companies. Traffickers target young people in Asia, promising “high-paying jobs” and accommodation in countries like Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, etc.
Their trick is to put out advertising information about light jobs and high wages in Cambodia (800–1,000 USD/month). After the victim agrees to work, the criminal group will contact and organize to bring them into Cambodia.
Upon arrival, the victims had their passports confiscated. They are sold to different groups and forced to work for companies that specialize in phone or online scams. Most of the workers these scam companies target are workers in China, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
Here, employees are divided into groups; if workers know how to type and do office work, they will be able to work in the office. If workers cannot do office work, they will be forced to do manual labor.
Either way, both groups of workers will face the same outcomes: forced hard work, exploitation, brutal beatings, and having to pay thousands of dollars in contract damages if they want to get out.
Often, the owners of these scam companies will connect with each other. So, if a company in this scam network lacks human resources, Chinese bosses will not hesitate to sell their employees to another company and get some money from human trafficking for themselves.
Human trafficking comes not only from the lack of manpower between companies but also from the “useless workers” in each of the scam companies. First, workers who fail to do their jobs properly will be forced to kneel or hang, and they will be beaten with batons and electric whips.
This is a hell with no personal rights when every employee will work from morning until late at night, eat in the company cafeteria, and sleep and rest in the building’s dormitory. All computers will be checked after hours to capture every employee’s actions and prevent those who attempt to call for outside help in the form of calling the police or, most commonly, calling for relatives.
If, after that terrible blow, the workers still can’t learn the “lessons” and continue to fail to complete their work, then, for women, the gangsters will sell them into prostitution and take the money. As for men, the gangsters in the company will throw them on an island so they can slowly die there if they can’t find a way to escape.
People who work in the office are also not much better and can often get the same results if they do not meet the KPIs set by the company. In addition, workers will not be allowed to leave the building. They are not permitted to talk or exchange messages via the computer while working, and even a minor movement will result in a fine, with more serious offenses punishable by beating.
Workers in these companies will never be able to run away because if they are caught again, they will only be able to face beatings so terrifyingly that it feels like they are about to die.
It is not uncommon for gangsters working in fraudulent companies in Cambodia to accidentally beat people to death. If someone is beaten to death in this scam company, the gangsters will throw their body into the forests on the border of Cambodia and neighboring countries so that the body can decompose on its own and the person disappears out of the world
Their families will not have any information about their dead loved ones. These companies will also regularly notify employees of workers being beaten to death or being sold elsewhere for the purpose of terrorizing those who attempt to flee.
Why didn’t the police get involved?
There are many reasons why the police do not or cannot completely destroy these fraudulent companies in Cambodia. These reasons cover the economic, political, and military aspects of Cambodia and the countries concerned.
The first thing to mention is that scam companies in Cambodia will often be built in the area near the border of neighboring countries to facilitate the reception of workers passing through to work from nearby countries. Usually, there will be a network of companies built in the autonomous regions of Cambodia.
The construction of the company in the autonomous area is not only to easily manage the employees but also to reduce the risk of employees escaping because the autonomous region is a large area of land with no houses or forests to hide in. It also avoids policing neighboring countries because, obviously, other countries have no right to invade Cambodia’s territory, even if it is an autonomous region.
The border police and authorities have also been linked with scam companies to cover up, and because the security in these areas is quite poor, scam companies are extremely common.
Conclusion
It’s not just people whose money is taken by scam companies in Cambodia who are victims of technology scams. Remember, even employees in their company are victims of scams, and even if they don’t lose money, their health and lives are threatened every day if they still work in scam companies in Cambodia.
