Indian government rescues it's citizens from cyber fraud activities in Cambodia

250 nationals of Cambodia who were forced into conducting internet frauds have so far been saved by the Indian government.
According to India's foreign ministry, they were offered jobs but were "forced to undertake illegal cyber work."
According to recent estimates, almost 5,000 Indians who were detained in Cambodia were coerced into running cyberfraud operations.
Human traffickers operating employment scams in South East Asia are thought to have taken thousands of victims from all over the world.
The victims, who are typically young and tech-savvy, are promised jobs before being drawn into illicit online activities such as money laundering, cryptocurrency fraud, and so-called love scams, in which they pretend to be lovers on the internet.

At least 120,000 persons in Myanmar and an additional 100,000 in Cambodia were reportedly coerced into running cyber-fraud operations, according to a UN study from August 2023.
This is the most recent in a string of similar victims' rescues from South East Asia. Hundreds of people were compelled to deceive people by expressing love interest online under false pretenses, until authorities in the Philippines freed them in March. A few weeks prior to it, China had brought hundreds of its nationals back from Myanmar's fraud centers.
The foreign ministry spokeswoman for India, Randhir Jaiswal, stated over the weekend that his nation was closely collaborating with the Cambodian authorities to "crack down on those responsible for these fraudulent schemes".

In the last three months, India claimed to have rescued 75 people; the exact number of persons still in need of rescue is unknown.
The Indian Express newspaper revealed last week that 130 complaints of Indians being detained in Cambodia against their will had been received by India's embassy in Phnom Penh.
They were among thousands of others who were allegedly coerced into posing as law enforcement officers in order to con people in India or, in certain situations, get money from them.

According to the newspaper, the victims in India have been defrauded of at least 5 billion rupees ($59 million; £47 million) over the previous six months. An officer from India's embassy in Cambodia was featured in another article in the media, stating that they typically received four to five complaints a day from people who were offered jobs but ended up stuck in Cambodia. A man who was saved and went by the name Stephen told the newspaper that he was approached by an agent from Mangaluru in southern India and given the opportunity to work as a data entry worker in Cambodia. He claims that after arriving in the nation, he was instructed to make fictitious social media profiles featuring pictures of women and utilize them to get in touch with people.