South Korean society has recently been very concerned about the Cambodian fraud issue, although most of the Koreans who are currently cheated into Cambodia are men, but there are also women who are cheated. It is that a Korean woman was originally nominated to Cambodia as a Japanese translator position, but was later deceived to be a lowly broadcaster in Cambodia.

Interior view of the Prince Park in the Telecommunications Fraud Park near Phnom Penh, Cambodia

According to the latest report, 30-year-old Kim Min Ho (pseudonym) arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in April 2024 after applying for a translation job. But after arriving in Phnom Penh, she walked step by step towards "hell".

She was picked up at the airport by a Korean, who looked polite, and he was also an actor and model that could be searched online. When receiving her, the Korean smiled and said to her: ¡°This job is not difficult.¡±

But the promise was a trap. After a four-hour drive, Kim Min Ho arrived in an apartment near the beach in Sihanouk, Cambodia. She used social software to tell her family that she had arrived successfully and three strangers broke into the room and asked her to hand over her phone.

Since then, Jin Minhe has been asked to be an anchor with no dignity. She was forced to undress and sit in front of the camera, praying for a reward from the live audience. The reward performance table has been posted on the wall all the time, and if the target amount is not reached, abuse and beatings will follow.

She is not the only woman who has this experience, and the screams of "Help me" came intermittently from the room next to Jin Minhe. Jin Minha stayed in a room that never turned off the lights all day, and could only hold on at the light of the camera.

After the disappearance of Kim Min Ho, her family also began to search for her around. Kim Min Ho sent a photo to her family after arriving in the apartment, which became the main clue to her eventual rescue. A Korean expatriate who lived in the city of Sihanouk, Cambodia for 20 years, tracked the sea and island location in the photo, and searched for a month in the city of Sihanouk, finally determining where Kim Min Ho was detained. The man raided the building with the Cambodian police he knew and saved the sensitive cargo.

But after being rescued back home, Kim heard something even more terrifying. The Korean man who first picked up her at the airport, received a local fraudulent crime group of 5 million won (about 25,000 yuan) and sold her to a fraudulent organization.

According to local media reports, Kim Jong-il was imprisoned in the city building of Sihanouk, and now there is still a guard at the entrance. Those who pretended to look at their phones, but watched around vigilantly. Local drivers with their companions reminded: ¡°They seem to recognize us, and absolutely don¡¯t get out of the car.¡±

South Korean experts stressed that South Korea also needs to establish a normalized response mechanism to protect its own citizens.Professor Guo Daqiang of the University of Police Justice at the University of East Korea said that ¡°a ¡®Korean office¡¯ should be established in Cambodia to ensure real-time communication between the two countries.¡±

On October 20, Liu Zhen, the official agent of the head of the South Korean Police Department, held talks with the deputy director of the Cambodian Police General Administration, Gyeongbuvo, and agreed to set up a 24-hour hotline between the two countries, but failed to reach an agreement on the establishment of a new South Korean office.

Extended reading

Cambodia electronic fraud park opens "Korean special" Korean employees use their mother tongue to lure compatriots

Comprehensive Xinhua Agency and CCTV news reports, South Korean police reported on the 20th that they had applied for arrest warrants for 59 suspects suspected of participating in online fraud who were recently repatriated from Cambodia. Previously, a South Korean college student was detained, tortured and killed after being lured to work in Cambodia, arousing anger among the South Korean people. Government data shows that the number of South Koreans suspected of participating in telecommunications network fraud in Cambodia may far exceed previous estimates of more than 1000. In view of the surge in related cases, the South Korean government has implemented the highest level 4 travel alert for some areas of Cambodia since the 16th of this month.

South Korean suspect suspected of cyber fraud in Cambodia recently returned home

¡°Korean Specialist¡±

In August this year, the body of South Korean Park Min-ho was found in a pickup truck in Kampot province in southern Cambodia. The 22-year-old student died of cardiac arrest after being tortured and beaten, authorities said. It is reported that Park was lured to Cambodia by one of his friends, who was later arrested in South Korea.

Park Chan-dae, a member of the ruling Common Democratic Party of South Korea, helped rescue 16 Koreans in Cambodia in August and September this year. He said criminal organizations are exploiting vulnerable people who are in desperate need of work.

It is that the victims were mostly aged 20 to 30 years old and attracted by local high-pay promises.After arriving in the park, they were confiscated their passports, subjected to detention, blackmail, and forced to participate in crimes such as electronic fraud, gambling.

Park said the family of three of the 16 rescued people contacted his office for help and said the victim secretly shared information with him about their location.

There are reports that the Cambodian scam park has also opened a "Korean specialty" for Koreans, with Korean "old employees" using their native language to lure more compatriots to work.

They disappeared

South Korean police received a report from the Cambodia government from July to September this year, saying that it had investigated and dealt with the local online fraud call center and provided a list of South Korean suspects. On October 18, 64 South Korean suspects detained in Cambodia on suspicion of participating in online fraud were repatriated.

Park Zhengpil, head of the State Investigation Headquarters of the South Korean Police Department, said that the police are checking the victim situation and other new criminal clues, and will investigate whether the suspect is a "knowing the law offender" or a forced crime after being abducted.

According to the statistics of the Korean Embassy in Cambodia, in the first eight months of this year, there have been more than 330 Koreans involved in fraud cases, of which 52 cases are pending and another 80 people are "missing".

According to the latest government data, the number of Koreans suspected of participating in telecommunication network fraud in Cambodia may far exceed the government's previous estimate of more than 1,000.

Cambodia's capital city of Phnom Penh

According to a piece of information obtained by Park Tsun Tae's office from the Ministry of Justice on the 20th, since 2021, the gap between the number of people leaving South Korea to Cambodia and the number of people returning from Cambodia has widened significantly. In 2021, 113 more people will go to Cambodia than those returning to South Korea. This difference will surge to 3209 in 2022, 2662 in 2023, and 3248 in 2024. This may mean that two to three thousand South Koreans have gone to Cambodia every year for three consecutive years and stayed there. As of August this year, nearly 900 people who went to Cambodia have not returned home.

Action has been carried out

Starting from the 16th of this month, the South Korean government has listed the Mount Boko area of Kampot Province, Cambodia, as well as the cities of Bawe and Poipet as travel prohibited areas. The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that if South Korean citizens visit or stay in these areas, they will be punished for violating the Passport Law, etc., and called on South Korean citizens planning to travel to the above-mentioned areas to cancel relevant trips.

Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Manet held a meeting with South Korean Second Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Jin-o in Phnom Penh on the 16th to discuss joint efforts to combat cybercrime.

Mr. Kim said Mr. Hong-Manne asked South Korea to ease travel restrictions because of concerns that this could have a negative impact on Cambodia's investment and tourism industry. Mr. Kim responded that these restrictions were "inevitable", but South Korea would ease the restrictions if the situation improved.

Jeremy Douglas, Director of the Office on Drugs and Crime at the United Nations, said that Southeast Asia, the border area between Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand, ¡°can be said to be the world¡¯s largest centre of fraud and illegal online gambling.¡±