Fraud groups are now shifting from the Philippines to Cambodia. There is a lot of buzz on social media about “Overseas work,” and many of them terms like “fun, resort, and high income,” but the reality is far from that.
They take your passport away and take you to their base. Depending on where you are, you are almost locked up and they don’t let you out. Furthermore, you are told that “If you try to tell the police, you would be sanctioned after you are released.”
On October 7th, 12 Japanese men in Cambodia were arrested on suspicion of fraud after being transferred to Japan. They were acting as telephone callers and all are believed to have been deceived by false job offers.
In April, a Japanese scam group based in Sihanoukville in southern Cambodia was unveiled. A Japanese man forced to commit special fraud sent an SOS to the embassy, which led to the discovery. The group is believed to have defrauded 107 people out of approximately 1.07 billion yen over a year and a half. “Recruiters” who scouted for instigators were arrested, including one suspect, Takeo Yoshida, who is also known as a “legend” in the underground martial arts world.
Why are they moving to Cambodia? According to an expert, Japanese anti-social forces entered the country around 2020. The Japanese Embassy in Cambodia first became aware of these cases towards Japanese nationals in 2021, and the Embassy issued a warning in June 2022.
Sihanuoukville, where the group was exposed in April, is a resort area that was even dubbed the “second Macau” due to Chinese investment. However, it declined after the Cambodian government imposed a ban on online casino in 2020, and the pandemic affected its demise.
Joji Suzuki, a journalist familiar with the local situation, explains that Sihanoukville has taken Cambodia from being a “hotbed of criminals” to the next phase. Japanese crime groups are also trying to use the falling real estate prices to commit special fraud.
In 2023, a group of seven Japanese men based at a hotel in northern Cambodia were caught in August, and in September 28, Japanese were detained in an apartment in Phnom Penh, three of whom are believed to have escaped and fled across the border into Thailand.
Commenting on the circumstances behind the country’s expansion as a crime hub, Suzuki revealed: “From the Minister of Justice level to the bottom, everything is a bribery. The judiciary is the most corrupt by far in Asia.
Chinese mafia is currently the dominant force in Cambodia. There have been cases where job offers have been found in Japan, but the company they applied to was a Chinese mafia-affiliated organization.
There is a Chinese mafia that is integrated into the regime, and Japanese crime groups are part of this group.
They are running online scams on a large scale. It’s a front business and they are integrated with the Cambodian government, so the police are less likely to investigate them if they are protected by the group.
A Japanese police officer said that it cannot be done by the police alone. I think it is necessary from now on to talk with the state and the national government to get them to cooperate in investigations.
