HYDERABAD: Chinese gangs running cybercrime hubs in Cambodia disguise their operations as legitimate businesses, including as ‘casinos’, which in fact has thousands of slave workers, according to a victim from Telangana who managed to return to India after buying his freedom.
The victim, Martha Praveen from Jagtial, estimated that there were about 5,000 people from India in the camp he was held.The Telangana Cyber Security Bureau (TGCSB) recently registered an FIR based on his complaint.
Praveen’s ordeal began after he fell for a job offer in Azerbaijan, only to be given a visa to Cambodia.
After being offered the job on a WhatsApp group ‘Azerbaijan Sri Overseas’ managed by ‘Thanugula Vamshi Krishna’ and ‘Tota Mahesh’, he had transferred Rs 1 lakh early last year. He was kept hanging for several months and then in August informed about a data entry operator position in Cambodia. But on landing in Cambodia, he realised he was conned.
The taxi driver confiscated his passport and drove him to a large office complex operating multiple call centres where there were already close to 5,000 Indians.
Praveen said that the scale of deception and exploitation was chilling, with harsh working conditions and people being moved to different locations.
He was transferred to a office in Sihanoukville, about 200 km from Phnom Penh, where a call centre racket was being operated as a ‘Casino’. Here, the Chinese operators were scamming people through fake trading, investment, and job offers, primarily targeting Indians, Europeans and Turkish nationals. Around 100 local Cambodians guarded the compound.
“People were assigned code names. I was called ‘Josh’. The team leaders were ‘Thor’, Robin and ‘Loki’ from Kerala, ‘Rolex’ from Tamil Nadu, ‘David’ from Bangladesh, ‘Airk’ from China etc. Our colleagues who worked in customer care services had access to data.” He said workers were prohibited from sharing personal information and team leaders were told to watch them. Violation of any rule resulted in fines and salary deductions. Though his salary was $600, it was never fully paid, Praveen said. The Chinese organisers also frequently demanded detailed information about Indian citizens, cities and economic conditions, he said.
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