3 arrests for luring Indians for fake work in Cambodia, Burma and Thailand

Visakhapatnam:

Visakhapatnam police on Saturday said they had busted a cybercrime racket and arrested three advisory agents for allegedly luring unemployed youths and sending them to China-controlled cybercrime rings in countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand.

Despite the growing awareness of cybercrime, the number of incidents is constantly increasing, and many of them still fall victim to sophisticated frauds. According to an official release, to tackle this, the Visakhapatnam Police has launched an operation to root out this criminal activity.

Their efforts led to the arrest of advisory agents from the Gajuwaka area, including the prime suspect, Chukka Rajesh (33).

The illegal racket came to light after Botcha Sankar, a former navy employee, filed a complaint through the 1930 Cybercrime Hotline. Sankar’s complaint was based on the account of a victim who managed to escape.

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Following a complaint, Visakhapatnam police arrested provincial leader Chukka Rajesh and his associates Sabbavarapu Kondala Rao and Mannena Gnaneshwar Rao, both from Gajuwaka area. Police investigation revealed a complex network of agents, including Santosh, Arya, Umamahesh and Habib, who facilitated human trafficking.

Visakhapatnam Police Commissioner Ravi Shankar Ayyanar told ANI that he suspected that the victims could be over 5,000 from Andhra Pradesh, especially from Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli, Palasa, Rajamundry, Tuni, Amalapuram and Anantapur, besides Kolkata.

He said they were sharing details of the investigation with the Indian Embassy in Cambodia and appealed to the parents of the victims to approach them and the Indian Embassy in Cambodia.

Cases have been registered against three local agents for human trafficking, extortion, unlawful detention and criminal conspiracy.

Ravi Shankar further said that Indian agents in Cambodia were calling local agents to organize people for cyber crimes in the name of data entry jobs. Local agents charged each job candidate Rs 1.50 lakh, of which they sent Rs 80,000 to agents in Cambodia in exchange for passports, visas and other formalities, and kept the rest as commission, he noted.

READ | 250 Indians lured to Cambodia with fake job offers Rescued: Center

Once in Cambodia, these young people were held as slaves and forced to operate in a cybercrime network. They were denied food and pay until they complied. The agents trained them before using them to commit various online frauds through which they robbed innocent people of their hard-earned money.

“Courier fraud, cryptocurrency fraud, task gaming and OTP fraud are some of the crimes they commit,” he said.

“Those who work properly will receive a salary of $600, in addition to incentives and promotions. According to the investigation, the victims are forced to work for at least a year,” he added.

During the investigation, police verified the facts through video call with the victims, Ravi Shankar said, adding that the victims shared their difficulties. Once they agreed, the men and women were sent to countries such as Cambodia, Burma and Thailand, where they ended up working for Chinese companies. These companies trained them for 7-10 days and forced them to engage in cybercrime for an average salary of $600 per month. Any resistance resulted in severe punishments, including torture and deprivation of food and water.

Officials said that around 5,000 people from Andhra Pradesh have fallen victim to this scam in the last two years.

The victims traveled to Cambodia on tourist visas, which were converted to business visas after joining Chinese companies, they added.

The police continued to investigate the case.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)