Police in Phnom Penh arrested 39 Chinese nationals on Friday and Saturday suspected of participating in an organized network that operates a telecommunications extortion ring, officials said Sunday.
Major General Khun Sambor, chief of the Ministry of Interior’s intelligence department, said 29 Chinese nationals were arrested in Chamkar Mon district on Friday, while another 10 were arrested Saturday in Meanchey, Russei Keo and Sen Sok districts.
“All of these are new groups, and their ages range from 18 to 32 years of age,” Maj. Gen. Sambor said. “They are the best, the king when it comes to I.T. skills and using VOIP [Voice Over Internet Protocol].”
“Now, they are all in our custody at the intelligence department at the ministry for questioning over the type of technology they used to cheat money from Chinese victims in their own country,” he said, adding that police had worked with the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and municipal prosecutors to find the locations where the group were working from.
The alleged scam involves the use of VOIP technology to call people in China and Taiwan and use different ruses to defraud and extort money from them.
The weekend’s arrests follow a similar incident in January when police arrested 80 Chinese and Taiwanese nationals, who were believed to be carrying out the same scam from seven different locations around the city.
In May, a further 45 Taiwanese nationals were arrested and deported for their roles in another online extortion ring after the Chinese Embassy received a tip-off and contacted Cambodian authorities.
Authorities do not believe that the groups arrested on Friday and Saturday are connected to previous rings. However, the suspects are still being questioned, said Lieutenant General Kirth Chantharith, spokesman for the national police. “They will be deported after we receive our superior’s orders,” he added.
