Cambodian Police Raid Two Scam Dens in Bavet: 26 Chinese Nationals Detained, One Site Hidden Behind a Kindergarten With a Wardrobe Secret Passage
Bavet — Police in Cambodia's Svay Rieng Province raided two suspected online scam operations in the border city of Bavet on the afternoon of November 3, detaining 26 Chinese nationals and two Cambodian cleaners and seizing computers, phones and a Range Rover. As Cambodia's crackdown on telecom fraud continues, some scam dens have begun hiding behind kindergartens, guesthouses and restaurants, with secret doors and passages built inside.
The first site operated behind a guesthouse. Police detained 13 Chinese men there and seized 11 passports, 16 computers, 17 mobile phones and five Wi-Fi devices.
The second site was more elaborately disguised: the front of the building was a functioning kindergarten. The building was divided into three zones — the kindergarten at the front, hotel rooms in the middle, and tin-roofed rooms at the rear — with the suspected scam operation hidden in the back section and some of the rooms, sealed off by brick walls. The den had a secret passage entered through a wardrobe, and a tea table stood by the rear wall so occupants could climb over and escape. Police detained 13 Chinese nationals there — 12 men and one woman — along with two Cambodian women working as cleaners, and seized 13 computers, 20 mobile phones, two Wi-Fi devices and a black Range Rover.
Cambodia enacted a law this year against technology-enabled scams and has been running a nationwide clearing campaign. Under enforcement pressure, some scam groups have moved people and operations beyond Southeast Asia.
(Source: Svay Rieng Provincial Police, Cambodia)
Source: Svay Rieng Provincial Police, Cambodia
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：柬埔寨巴域市街景。照片 CC BY 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Street scene in Bavet, Cambodia. CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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