Over 5,000 Indians held in Cambodia against their will, MEA gives big update. Details here

Around 5,000 Indians are being held captive in Cambodia and forced to participate in online scams targeting individuals in India. The scale of the illegal operation, estimated to have generated Rs 500 crore within six months, has prompted action from both countries, The Indian Express reported quoting sources aware of the matter. 

The Ministry of External Affairs confirmed that the Indian Embassy in Cambodia is responding to complaints and around 250 Indians have been "rescued and repatriated" so far. 

"We have seen the media reports on Indian nationals stuck in Cambodia. Our Embassy in Cambodia has been promptly responding to complaints from Indian nationals who were lured with employment opportunities to that country but were forced to undertake illegal cyber work," the MEA said. 

The probe by central agencies revealed agents were trapping people, mostly from southern India and sending them to Cambodia for alleged data entry jobs. 

Stephen, among those rescued from Cambodia, has an ITI degree and did some computer courses during the coronavirus pandemic. He said: "There were three of us, including someone called Babu Rao from Andhra. At the immigration, the agent mentioned that we were going on a tourist visa, which raised my suspicion. In Cambodia, we were taken to an office space, where they held an interview and the two of us cleared it. They tested our typing speeds etc."

The boss was Chinese while a Malaysian person acted as a translator for them so they could understand the instructions. It was only later when they realised that their job entailed looking for profiles on Facebook and identifying people who can be scammed. 

They were forced to create fake social media profiles, posing as women on dating apps to scam potential victims, he furthermore said. "So, a South Indian girl's profile would ne used to trap someone in the North so that it did not raise any suspicion," he explained.

Stephen added that they had targets to meet and if they failed to do so, they would not give them food or allow them to go into their rooms. He also said that after a month and a half of this ordeal, he contacted his family and they reached out to local politicians to speak to the Embassy. 

But why did it take so long for Stephen to reach out to his family? Rourkela Sub Divisional Police Official Upasana Padhi said these companies take away the passports of these men and make them work 12 hours a day. She added that if anybody refuses to work, they are subjected to physical assaults, electric shocks, solitary confinement, etc. 

"Many Indians who are not willing to engage in such scams are trapped there. We are trying to identify them, contact them and try to bring them back to India through proper channels," Padhi said. 

The source added Indians trapped in Cambodia were forced to scam people back in India and, in some cases, extort money by impersonating as law enforcement officials and saying they found suspicious materials in their parcels. 

The scam also involved cryptocurrency trading and fake stock investments, Padhi said. The scam, which involves posing as law enforcement officials and extorting money from victims, came to light when a government employee reported a loss of over Rs 67 lakh.

A Rourkela Police official told The Indian Express that 8 people have been arrested in the case from different parts of the country so far. The official added that look out circulars have been issued against 16 people, after which the Bureau of Immigration detained Harish Kurapati and Naga Venkata Sowjanya Kurapati at the Hyderabad airport while they came back from Cambodia. 

As per the Rourkela Police, the agents in October last year forced the men to join another company which lured people to invest in fake stocks and also created a fake online app. Padhi added that the Rourkela Police is planning to take the help of the Interpol to arrest the key players in this scam. 

“We have also gathered critical information regarding the location of the fraud companies, their operatives, their working style and their management hierarchy. We have identified three key high-level operatives of Indian origin and one high-level operative who is of Nepalese origin. We intend to take the help of Interpol to arrest key players in this scam,” Padhi added.