Thousands trafficked into SE Asian scams

GENEVA — Citing "credible sources", the United Nations Human Rights Office said on Tuesday that at least 120,000 people across Myanmar and about 100,000 in Cambodia are being forcibly engaged by organized criminal gangs to work in online scam centers.

The report also identifies other nations in the Southeast Asian region, such as Laos, the Philippines and Thailand, as main destination or transit countries, where at least tens of thousands of people have been involved in illegal online operations, such as romance scams, crypto fraud and online gambling.

Scam centers in the region generate billions of dollars in revenue each year, the report said, adding that most people trafficked into online scam operations are men, though women and adolescents are also among the victims.

Many victims are well-educated, computer literate and multilingual, sometimes coming from professional jobs or with graduate or postgraduate degrees, it said.

"In continuing to call for justice for those who have been defrauded through online criminality, we must not forget that this complex phenomenon has two sets of victims," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said, also calling those people who were coerced into working in scamming operations as victims.

Online scams, also known as telecom fraud, has been a chronic social problem for years in Asia. According to China's Ministry of Public Security, an increasing number of telecom fraud organizations have moved their dens out of China to avoid police crackdowns in recent years.

Since the beginning of this year, Chinese police have launched joint operations with police forces from the Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos, and captured more than 300 suspects of telecom frauds, the ministry said.

On Wednesday, Indonesian police said dozens of Chinese nationals were arrested on suspicion of running an online love scam syndicate that ensnared hundreds of victims in China.

Acting on a tip-off from their Chinese counterparts, Indonesian police arrested 83 men and five women at an industrial park in Batam city in Riau Islands Province on Tuesday.

"We are investigating if there are any Indonesians among the victims," Riau Islands police spokesman Zahwani Pandra Arsyad told Agence France-Presse on Wednesday. "If there are none, the scammers will be deported immediately."

Xinhua - Agencies