Over 300 Vietnamese arrested after Cambodia scam bust: Police

More than 300 Vietnamese accused of internet fraud have been arrested in Vietnam after being repatriated in March from Cambodia where the authorities dismantled a transnational cyberscam ring.



Across South-east Asia, organised criminal gangs have used casinos, hotels and fortified compounds as bases to carry out sophisticated online scams, defrauding people around the world, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.



Cambodia hosts dozens of scam centres with tens of thousands of people perpetrating online scams – some willingly and others trafficked – in a multibillion-dollar illicit industry.



The arrests of 343 people on internet fraud charges were made on March 27, accotding to police in Vietnam’s Dong Nai province, which borders Cambodia.



They were among nearly 400 Vietnamese handed over by Cambodian authorities on March 17 who “were part of a transnational online fraud ring recently dismantled in Cambodia.



Cambodia’s immigration department said in March that 776 Vietnamese nationals “involved in online fraud cases” in the country were deported to Vietnam on March 17.