South Korean delegation of lawmakers visits Cambodian site of alleged online scam ring

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia and South Korea said Thursday that a delegation of lawmakers from South Korea’s National Assembly visited a building in Cambodia allegedly used by an online scam operation involving dozens of South Koreans.

The South Koreans were detained by Cambodian police and repatriated earlier this month to South Korea, where authorities have accused them of involvement in fraud including romance scams and bogus investments, apparently targeting fellow South Koreans at home.

The members of the assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee inspected the site Wednesday on the outskirts of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, where dozens of South Koreans were detained during a crackdown on July 5.

Cambodia’s commission on online crime said that Cambodian police shared materials with the visiting delegation showing that South Korean nationals worked at the scam center voluntarily, without force or intimidation.

Detainees were repatriated on Oct. 18 on a chartered flight from Phnom Penh to South Korea, where authorities said at the time that they were trying to determine whether the South Koreans had been forced to work in the scams.

South Korean police said earlier in the week that local courts so far have issued arrest warrants for 49 out of 64 South Korean returnees, and that arrest warrants for additional returnees were being considered. Police have said the suspects are accused of engaging in romance scams, bogus investment pitches or voice phishing.

Online scams, many based in Southeast Asian countries, have risen sharply since the COVID-19 pandemic and produced two kinds of victims: thousands of people who have been forced to work as scammers under the threat of violence, and the targets of their fraud. Monitoring groups say online scams earn international criminal gangs billions of dollars annually.

Over the past four months, police in Cambodia have raided 92 locations in 18 provinces and arrested 3,455 people from 20 nationalities, Cambodian authorities said. Most were victims and have already been deported from Cambodia. Seventy-five people believed to be behind the scams have been charged in a Cambodian court.