CHINA'S Ministry of Public Security is probing five trans-border scam cases as more reports emerge of foreigners being lured into working for criminal syndicates in Cambodia.
Chinese authorities have placed the investigations under the joint oversight of the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) and the Ministry of Public Security, indicating it will punish such crimes severely.
According to a China Daily report, the SPP said the cases were registered in Zhejiang, Fujian, Henan and Hunan provinces, as well as Chongqing municipality, and each involved a large number of victims and caused severe harm to the public.
In one case, police in Zhejiang studied evidence against overseas telecom fraud gangs in December 2020 and uncovered a group entrenched in Cambodia.
Preliminary investigations showed that the group set up a false investment platform overseas to defraud Chinese citizens.
It said more than 400 people from the group or associated with the group have been arrested, involving a total fraud of over 150 million yuan (US$23.6 million).
The SPP said Chinese authorities were also committed to capturing and cracking down on key financiers of such criminal groups and relevant criminals.
People who provide the criminal groups with personal information, technical support, payment and settlement assistance are also targets.
It also warned criminals staying abroad to forget about evading punishment and return to China to turn themselves in as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, the Khmer Times reports that though 82 Thai and Malaysian nationals were rescued from online scamming and call centre syndicates in Sihanoukville recently, many more could not be rescued as the syndicates have been tipped off about police raids.
In one location in Sihanoukville, a police raid was expected to rescue five Malaysian nationals but found only two as three were reportedly moved to other locations when information about the planned rescue was leaked in social media in Cambodia.
When Thai police provided specific information such as location and numbers held captive in slave labour conditions, these too was leaked to the syndicates who hurriedly moved them around in Sihanoukville and to places outside the coastal city.
"It's not fair to label Sihanoukville as crime ridden as these scammers and online gambling syndicates are illegal operations, are well 'covered'; and have their informers all over the coastal city to tip them off on any unusual movements or situations.
"We act when we receive specific information and that is how we have rescued more than 700 Thais, Pakistanis, Chinese, Malaysians and others.
"The difficult ones are the ones who are normally left behind in the locations," a Sihanoukville police official told the Khmer Times.
Sixteen Malaysians were rescued this week while more than 60 Thai were similarly saved from scam operations in Cambodia during a series of raids this week.
Thai police said on Tuesday that raids over two days in Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh led to the rescue of 66 Thai nationals while some others were moved just before police arrived.
Thai police had been providing intelligence while Cambodian police carried out the actual raids.