CHANDIGARH: Now, many youth from India are being scammed by fake job offers from Digital Sales and Marketing Executives, Customer Support Service, or Data Entry Operators in Cambodia, Laos, Yagon, Vietnam, and Myanmar. Once the youth land in these countries, their passports are taken away from them, and then they are forced to work in cyber-scamming call centres to target people back in India and thus commit cyber-financial fraud.
The Cyber Crime Division of the Punjab Police has arrested two travel agents for indulging in illegal trafficking of persons from the Punjab to Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries. Most of the youth have gone from South India and a few have also been rescued.
Director General of Police Punjab Gaurav Yadav said that those arrested have been identified as Amarjeet Singh, who is the owner of Visa Palace Immigration in Mohali and his accomplice, Gurjodh Singh. The arrested travel agents were sending innocent people from Punjab to Cambodia promising them lucrative data entry jobs. On arrival at Siam Reap in Cambodia, their passports were taken away from them and then they were forced/tortured to work in cyber-scamming call centres to target Indian people to commit cyber financial frauds.
Yadav said that following the statement of the victim, who has managed to escape from Cambodia after getting in contact with the Indian Embassy in Cambodia, The State Cyber Crime Police Station had registered a first information report (FIR) and started investigations in this case. A case had been registered under Sections 370, 406, 420, and 120-B of the IPC and Section 24 of the Immigration Act at Police Station State Cyber Crime.
He said a preliminary investigation has revealed that the accused persons have fraudulently sent many people to Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries, where they are forcibly made to work at centres engaged in cyber-scamming Indians. The details of the persons who are into cyber slavery are being obtained and contacts are being established with them and their families, he added.
Sharing more details, Additional DGP Cyber Crime Division V Neeraja said that police teams from State Cyber Crime conducted a raid at the office of Visa Palace immigration and arrested both the accused persons. She said that the accused have further revealed that they were doing illegal activities in connivance with other agents belonging to different states. Further investigation is being conducted to identify other such travel agents and their accomplices to nab them, she said.
The Indian embassies in Cambodia, Yagon and Vietnam have issued advisories in this regard and also given a list of around twenty such agents mainly operating from Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and other places and another list of 13 agents operating from foreign countries, mainly from Dubai.
"Advisory on overseas jobs in Laos, Cambodia and the Southeast Asian Region has been issued by the Embassy of India, Cambodia and Embassy of India, Laos, advising citizens that many fake agents are operating in the Southeast Asian region who, along with agents based in India, are luring people with lucrative data entry jobs but are made to scam companies and carry out cyber crimes in India. It is therefore advised that overseas employment opportunities be sought only through the registered recruiting agents, registered by Ministry of External Affairs under the Emigration Act, 1983. Also, if any of the family members of the persons who are being exploited in the hands of foreign employers based in Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar may report the matter to the Protector of Emigrants, Chandigarh,’’ said Yashu Deep Singh Protector of Emigrants, Chandigarh.
Also, Interpol had last month issued a global warning to all the countries that it has been closely observing a growing crime phenomenon: large-scale human trafficking, where victims are lured through fake job ads to online scam centres and forced to commit the cyber-enabled financial crime on an industrial scale.
"Initially, online scam centres were concentrated in Cambodia, with further trafficking hubs later identified in Laos and Myanmar. Today, trafficking hubs have been identified in at least four more Asian countries, and there is evidence that the MO is being replicated in other regions, such as West Africa, where Cyber-enabled financial crime is already prevalent. Likewise, the geographical diversity of both sets of victims has also dramatically increased. While initial human trafficking victims were Chinese-speaking, drawn from China, Malaysia, Thailand or Singapore, victims have since been trafficked to the region from as far afield as South America, East Africa and Western Europe,’’ warning issued by Interpol stated.
"What began as a regional crime threat has become a global human trafficking crisis. Just about anyone in the world could fall victim to either the human trafficking or the online scams carried out through these criminal hubs. Much stronger international police cooperation is needed to stop this crime trend from spreading further,’’ said Jürgen Stock, Interpol Secretary General.