Latest news with #Cambodia-based
The Hindu
11 hours ago
- The Hindu
Cambodia-based job frauds continue to haunt Visakhapatnam youth
Cambodia-based job frauds continue to haunt Visakhapatnam, with new cases surfacing regularly. Many youths are falling prey to fake job offers and getting trapped in cybercrime networks abroad. Under the guise of data entry and hospitality jobs, victims are being forced into illegal activities after their arrival in foreign countries. In the latest incident, around 10 people hailing from Visakhapatnam and other regions are reportedly stranded in an undisclosed location in Thailand and being forced into committing cybercrimes. The issue came to light after the victims secretly sent a video message to their families, pleading for help. The parents of a victim approached Visakhapatnam West MLA P.G.V.R. Naidu (Gana Babu) on July 30, who assured them that the matter would be forwarded to the authorities concerned and the respective embassies. The identities are not revealed based on the request from the parents, in view of the threat to the lives of victims. According to the victims, they were recruited through unknown agencies with promises of data entry, receptionist, and hotel jobs in Thailand. A week after joining, the fraudsters snatched away their passports. In their message, the victims said that they were blindfolded, moved in multiple vehicles, and made to walk long distances to ensure that they were unaware of the location. After being transported to an unknown site, they were forced into cybercrime operations and beaten mercilessly if they refused to do so. The parents of the victims have urged the authorities to initiate swift action to bring the youths back home. As per the city police, some recruiting agencies have been targeting unemployed youths, sending them to countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Bangkok. The victims are forced to work for organised cybercrime syndicates. These gangs create fake social media profiles to dupe people worldwide, running scams involving cryptocurrency investments, instant loans, honey traps, digital arrests, and other financial frauds, the police said. Police estimates indicate that more than 150 people from Visakhapatnam are still caught in such cybercrime networks abroad, while 87 victims have been rescued in the past year. Police Commissioner Shankabratha Bagchi has repeatedly urged job seekers to verify the credentials and licences of recruitment agencies before accepting job offers. To spread awareness, the city police have released posters highlighting the dangers of Cambodia-based job scams, now displayed at all police stations across the city.
Time of India
21 hours ago
- Time of India
Cambodia conmen using SIM boxes in India to trick cops, find Telangana police and DoPT after raid in Mancherial
Hyderabad: Cambodia-based cybercrime syndicates have adopted a new tactic to evade Indian authorities — using SIM boxes installed in India to make VoIP calls and carry out 'digital arrest' scams. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The racket surfaced after the Department of Telecom (DoPT), along with Telangana police, raided a building in Jannaram, Mancherial district, and arrested four men — Y Kamesh (from Manyam district, AP), B Bapaiah, B Madhukar (both from Jagtial), and G Rajeshwar (Kistapur village). The main accused, Jack alias P Sai Krishna, is absconding. Police said Bapaiah had worked at a hotel in Cambodia, where he befriended Jack and was later roped into the scam. Delhi police also visited Mancherial in connection with a separate cybercrime case registered in the national capital. 'The DoT-Hyderabad unit received a complaint via the Chakshu portal about impersonation calls from people posing as government officials threatening mobile disconnection,' said Mancherial DCP A Bhaskar. When DoPT authorities analysed the technical details, by tracing IMEI numbers and the SIM boxes, it led them to Jannaram. On reaching the spot, police found SIM boxes in a single room of the building. One SIM box had 230 SIMs. Cops tracked down the people who had taken the premises on rent and created the set-up. 'In just two hours, call activity totalled 50,000 seconds. This means that 40 to 50 people were simultaneously making calls to prospective cybercrime victims in India,'' said Alen Anurag, additional director general, DoPT. The SIM cards were fraudulently sourced from Vizianagaram in AP, he added. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now On interrogation, the four accused revealed they were working for Cambodia-based cybercrime rings. 'Jack had tasked Bapaiah with setting up SIM box infrastructure to enable VoIP calls from Cambodia. Kamesh, a victim of online betting, joined in to recoup his losses. They were promised salaries of Rs 30,000–70,000, along with a share in the fraud proceeds,' a police official said.
Reuters
a day ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Cambodia's Hun Sen at the helm in border conflict with Thailand
July 31 (Reuters) - When weeks of tensions escalated into a major border conflict with Thailand last week, former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen appeared to take charge of his country's response. Photographs showed him at the end of a long table, speaking with military officers and poring over detailed maps, radio set in hand and a cup of Starbucks coffee within arms reach. The former guerrilla fighter is no longer Cambodia's leader, having passed on the premiership to his eldest son in 2023 after nearly four decades in power, and has taken over as the president of the Southeast Asian nation's Senate. But Hun Sen played an outsized role in events leading up to the deadliest fighting between Thailand and Cambodia in over a decade and - according to three diplomatic sources - showed his continuing influence during the five-day conflict. On Friday, after artillery fired from Cambodia landed in civilian areas in Thailand's border provinces, the Thai army took direct aim at him. "Based on available evidence, it is believed that the Cambodian government, led by Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, is behind these appalling attacks," it said in a statement, using honorifics for the veteran politician. Within hours of the clashes breaking out, Hun Sen, 72, was sharing a flurry of posts on Facebook, his favoured social media platform, to rally his people and criticise Thailand. In one photograph he posted, Hun Sen is seen in a video conference call with a dozen people, including several soldiers. In another post, he shared a photo of himself in combat fatigues. "On the border clashes, what strikes me is the extent to which he goes to create the optics of being in charge - wearing the uniform, being seen as directing the troop movements, intervening on Facebook," a Cambodia-based diplomat told Reuters. Like all the other diplomats interviewed for this story, he asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. Lim Menghour, a Cambodia government official working on foreign policy, said Hun Sen acted as the main logistics commander for troops on the frontline. "He has always monitored and kept observing the situation all the time," he told Reuters. In contrast to his father, Cambodia's incumbent premier Hun Manet, a four-star general and graduate of the West Point military academy in the United States, remained more muted on social media in the early days of the conflict, changing tack as he readied to travel to Malaysia for negotiations that yielded a ceasefire. Chhay Sophal, a Phnom Penh-based author of books on Hun Sen and his family, said the former premier can direct the government in his capacity as the president of the ruling Cambodian People's Party. "So, the prime minister must respect and follow the party's policy and president," he said. A Cambodia government spokesman did not respond to questions from Reuters. Thailand and Cambodia have bickered for decades over undemarcated sections of their 817 km (508 miles) land border, which has also led to fighting in the past. The recent tensions began rising in May, following the killing of a Cambodian soldier during a skirmish, and have steadily escalated since - a situation that Thai premier Paetongtarn Shinawatra sought to diffuse when she spoke directly with Hun Sen on June 15. A partial recording of the call was initially leaked, where Paetongtarn, 38, can be heard criticising a Thai general and kowtowing to Hun Sen, who later released the full audio of their conversation, triggering a political crisis in Thailand. In a rambling three-hour televised speech in late June, Hun Sen openly rebuked Paetongtarn for her handling of the border row and attacked her father, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, long seen as his ally. "At least before the flare-up, he was very much right there in your face," said a regional diplomat who closely tracks Cambodia. "I mean, he was the one who was mostly visible, who was making all the pronouncements." Hun Sen is a wily survivor of Cambodian politics and the wider tumult across Southeast Asia over the last half-a-century. Born to rice farmers in a province heavily bombed during the secret U.S. war in Cambodia and Laos, he became a soldier for the Khmer Rouge, whose murderous regime from 1975 to 1979 killed about a quarter of the population. But he defected to Vietnam in 1977 and, when they overthrew the Khmer Rouge, Hun Sen returned as foreign minister and then rose to become prime minister. The self-styled strongman presided over an economic boom in Cambodia, with per capita income almost quadrupling from $240 to $1,000 in the decade from 1993 to 2013. But much of the new-found wealth came to be concentrated in the hands of the country's ruling elite, even as political rivals were jailed or exiled, critical media outlets shuttered and civil dissent crushed, paving the way for Hun Manet to take over. In recent months, even domestic administrative policy decisions were being brought to Hun Sen for approval, according to the regional diplomat who interacts with Cambodian officials. Now, the border conflict has made his clout more apparent, and there has been an outpouring of support for the government on social media amid a wave of nationalism. "It hasn't surprised anyone that he's taken the lead which tells you everyone knew he was in charge," another Cambodia-based diplomat said. "If the goal is to strengthen nationalism, he has succeeded."
The Star
a day ago
- Politics
- The Star
Cambodia's Hun Sen at the helm in border conflict with Thailand
(Reuters) -When weeks of tensions escalated into a major border conflict with Thailand last week, former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen appeared to take charge of his country's response. Photographs showed him at the end of a long table, speaking with military officers and poring over detailed maps, radio set in hand and a cup of Starbucks coffee within arms reach. The former guerrilla fighter is no longer Cambodia's leader, having passed on the premiership to his eldest son in 2023 after nearly four decades in power, and has taken over as the president of the Southeast Asian nation's Senate. But Hun Sen played an outsized role in events leading up to the deadliest fighting between Thailand and Cambodia in over a decade and - according to three diplomatic sources - showed his continuing influence during the five-day conflict. On Friday, after artillery fired from Cambodia landed in civilian areas in Thailand's border provinces, the Thai army took direct aim at him. "Based on available evidence, it is believed that the Cambodian government, led by Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen, is behind these appalling attacks," it said in a statement, using honorifics for the veteran politician. Within hours of the clashes breaking out, Hun Sen, 72, was sharing a flurry of posts on Facebook, his favoured social media platform, to rally his people and criticise Thailand. In one photograph he posted, Hun Sen is seen in a video conference call with a dozen people, including several soldiers. In another post, he shared a photo of himself in combat fatigues. "On the border clashes, what strikes me is the extent to which he goes to create the optics of being in charge - wearing the uniform, being seen as directing the troop movements, intervening on Facebook," a Cambodia-based diplomat told Reuters. Like all the other diplomats interviewed for this story, he asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. Lim Menghour, a Cambodia government official working on foreign policy, said Hun Sen acted as the main logistics commander for troops on the frontline. "He has always monitored and kept observing the situation all the time," he told Reuters. LEAKED CALL AND CRISIS In contrast to his father, Cambodia's incumbent premier Hun Manet, a four-star general and graduate of the West Point military academy in the United States, remained more muted on social media in the early days of the conflict, changing tack as he readied to travel to Malaysia for negotiations that yielded a ceasefire. Chhay Sophal, a Phnom Penh-based author of books on Hun Sen and his family, said the former premier can direct the government in his capacity as the president of the ruling Cambodian People's Party. "So, the prime minister must respect and follow the party's policy and president," he said. A Cambodia government spokesman did not respond to questions from Reuters. Thailand and Cambodia have bickered for decades over undemarcated sections of their 817 km (508 miles) land border, which has also led to fighting in the past. The recent tensions began rising in May, following the killing of a Cambodian soldier during a skirmish, and have steadily escalated since - a situation that Thai premier Paetongtarn Shinawatra sought to diffuse when she spoke directly with Hun Sen on June 15. A partial recording of the call was initially leaked, where Paetongtarn, 38, can be heard criticising a Thai general and kowtowing to Hun Sen, who later released the full audio of their conversation, triggering a political crisis in Thailand. In a rambling three-hour televised speech in late June, Hun Sen openly rebuked Paetongtarn for her handling of the border row and attacked her father, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, long seen as his ally. "At least before the flare-up, he was very much right there in your face," said a regional diplomat who closely tracks Cambodia. "I mean, he was the one who was mostly visible, who was making all the pronouncements." RICE FIELDS TO POWER Hun Sen is a wily survivor of Cambodian politics and the wider tumult across Southeast Asia over the last half-a-century. Born to rice farmers in a province heavily bombed during the secret U.S. war in Cambodia and Laos, he became a soldier for the Khmer Rouge, whose murderous regime from 1975 to 1979 killed about a quarter of the population. But he defected to Vietnam in 1977 and, when they overthrew the Khmer Rouge, Hun Sen returned as foreign minister and then rose to become prime minister. The self-styled strongman presided over an economic boom in Cambodia, with per capita income almost quadrupling from $240 to $1,000 in the decade from 1993 to 2013. But much of the new-found wealth came to be concentrated in the hands of the country's ruling elite, even as political rivals were jailed or exiled, critical media outlets shuttered and civil dissent crushed, paving the way for Hun Manet to take over. In recent months, even domestic administrative policy decisions were being brought to Hun Sen for approval, according to the regional diplomat who interacts with Cambodian officials. Now, the border conflict has made his clout more apparent, and there has been an outpouring of support for the government on social media amid a wave of nationalism. "It hasn't surprised anyone that he's taken the lead which tells you everyone knew he was in charge," another Cambodia-based diplomat said. "If the goal is to strengthen nationalism, he has succeeded." (Reporting by Devjyot Ghoshal and Poppy McPherson in Bangkok and Francesco Guarascio in Hanoi; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Bangkok Post
5 days ago
- Politics
- Bangkok Post
Pheu Thai blames scam crackdown, not family feud, for border hostilities
The Pheu Thai Party has dismissed allegations that the Thai-Cambodia border dispute stems from personal or political rivalries between the Shinawatra and Hun Sen families, instead attributing it to Phnom Penh's dissatisfaction with Thailand's aggressive crackdown on Cambodia-based online scam centres. Pheu Thai Party MP and spokesman Danuporn Punnakanta said on Sunday that the root of the issue lies in Cambodian leaders' discontent over Thailand's efforts to dismantle cross-border online scam operations based in Cambodia. He pointed to Phnom Penh's refusal to join a planned trilateral mechanism involving Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar to jointly tackle transnational cybercrime, join, claiming that it would handle the matter independently. 'It's not a conflict between individuals or political dynasties like the Shinawatra and Hun Sen families,' Mr Danuporn said. 'It's about the fallout from cybercrime suppression. Key figures in Cambodia are being affected, and there is growing evidence to support this.' He cited the Thai arrest warrant issued for Kok An, an alleged Cambodian scam-backer and casino owner who was reportedly close to Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen. Authorities have also frozen significant assets and are working with Interpol to pursue international legal action against those involved. Mr Danuporn said although the situation along the Thai-Cambodian border remains tense, Thai security agencies are in full control and have put in place comprehensive measures to ensure public safety and defuse the situation. He stressed that the government remains committed to resolving the issue peacefully through established bilateral channels. The Foreign Ministry has set up a task force to assess international impacts, coordinate with embassies, and prepare humanitarian measures should the fighting linger. 'The government places great importance on diplomacy in easing tensions, and we want the public to rest assured that we are addressing the issue on all fronts—security, military, diplomatic, and the protection of people's lives and property—all of which are top priorities for the government,' said the Pheu Thai spokesman.
