India has taken swift action on the reports of several Indian citizens being stuck in Cambodia and were offered a too good to be actual employment opportunities in the IT sector, such as data entry operators, but were instead coerced to become cyber slaves and allegedly partake in malicious cyber fraud activities. They target mostly people from the southern part of India.
India has solemnly vowed to dismantle the organised crime networks and intensify its efforts to prioritise and safeguard the affected Indians trapped in the South East Asian country.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randheer Jaiswal has stated that they have promptly responded and are currently expediting the process of rescue and repatriation. India has successfully rescued 250 Indians from Cambodia, with 75 citizens over the last three months. India has shown its commitment to combat fraudulent schemes and assist Indian nationals who fall prey to such nefarious ploys. Indian Embassy in Cambodia has been proactively taking action on individual complaints regarding illicit cyber work and is collaborating closely with its Cambodian counterpart.
MEA and the Embassy of India in Cambodia have issued several advisories to Indians about such scams. An MEA spokesperson reiterated that India remains steadfast in assisting all Indian nationals who seek support and further added that they are working with the respective agencies in India to crack down on those accountable for such delusional and fake job schemes.
It has been reported that through this cyber nexus running in Cambodia, the amoral schemers have tricked over 5000 Indian citizens and have unwillingly carried out cyber frauds on people back home. Talking about the pretext, once the Indian nationals landed in Cambodia, their passports were snatched by the fraud company, which made them work 12 hours a day like slaves. If anybody refused to do the work, torture was inflicted on them through physical assaults, electric shocks, solitary confinement, etc.
It has been estimated through the data that the malicious plotters have allegedly looted people in India of at least Rs 500 crore over the last six months. They have scammed people in India, blackmailed and extorted huge amounts of money. They posed and pretended themselves as officials and personnel and duped people. They were also forced to pose as women on dating apps, chat with their potential targets, and gradually trap the clients into investing in cryptocurrency trading and fake stocks. The issue came to the spotlight following the destruction of a cyber-crime syndicate by the Rourkela Police in Odisha on December 30 last year.
Tracing the past patterns, records and modus operandi, similar scams were also orchestrated and detected in Myanmar, Thailand and Laos targeting Indian nationals. Indian authorities could thwart such notorious activities, who were lured to these countries and brought them home.
Earlier, the Ministry of Home Affairs convened a meeting with officials from the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, and security experts to devise a rescue strategy to overcome the exacerbated situation. India aims to free the Indians who were hoodwinked and became victims of such deceitful employment opportunities.
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