Sihanoukville, a special economic zone under China’s Belt and Road Initiatives in Cambodia plans to host 100 casinos. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the city has become a hub for the online gambling business. Screenshotfrom Al Jazeera English Youtube channel
Thousands of victims across Asia have been lured by job scams and occasionally love cons, through messaging apps, kidnapped and forced to work for the scam network in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, a special economic zone under China’s Belt and Road Initiatives.
Following the arrest of She Zhijiang, a wanted Chinese billionaire running a mega gambling ring across Asia, by Bangkok police in mid-August 2022, Cambodia’s human trafficking and scam operations dominated headlines in many Asia countries, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China, Malaysia, Vietnam and more, as their citizens have been conned and enslaved through a cross-border crime network.
Many of the scam victims are Taiwanese:
Some of the individuals who have fallen prey to job scams have beaten, electrocuted, or enslaved if they do not perform satisfactorily. It is known that at least 6 victims paid a ransom of US$20,000 each to secure their release and made it back to Taiwan.https://t.co/VGKH3KzgnL
— Focus Taiwan (CNA English News) (@Focus_Taiwan) August 25, 2022
Tan Hui Yee, Indochina Bureau Chief of Singapore-based media outlet Straits Times, shared a simple graphical explanation of the job scam on Twitter:
Most of the recent job scam…
