{"id":33754,"date":"2022-09-23T08:21:35","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T11:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=33754"},"modified":"2026-04-23T04:37:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T07:37:18","slug":"15-malaysians-rescued-from-cybercrime-operation-in-cambodia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/15-malaysians-rescued-from-cybercrime-operation-in-cambodia","title":{"rendered":"15 Malaysians rescued from cybercrime operation in Cambodia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Malaysian Foreign Ministry received 301 reports of job scams in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Cambodia.- The Cambodian Foreign Ministry has reported that it has rescued\u00a0<strong>15 Malaysian citizens who had been subjected to illegal work\u00a0<\/strong>linked to gambling and fraudulent call centres. According to The Borneo Bulletin, the victims have arrived in Kuala Lumpur after being rescued from an illegal operation that was raided by police as part of a large-scale operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The victims said they were lured to Cambodia by promises of high-paying jobs in casinos and hotels but were instead forced to live in compounds and defraud online users. Cambodian authorities say they have found evidence of illegal gambling, illegal confinement, torture, prostitution, illegal possession of weapons, money laundering and human trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such a case is not uncommon in Cambodia. Last week the Cambodian Foreign Ministry reported that at least\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/67-vietnamese-citizens-escape-from-casino-in-cambodia\" target=\"_blank\">67 Vietnamese citizens had escaped from a casino<\/a>\u00a0in the city of Bavet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Malaysian Foreign Ministry says it had received 301 reports of people caught up in labour scams in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. Of these, 168 people have been rescued, 34 were in immigration detention and 99 more were still being tracked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A few days ago,&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/cambodian-government-urges-tougher-provincial-action-against-illegal-gambling\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the Cambodian government<\/a>&nbsp;urged authorities in each province to step up their measures to combat unlicensed gambling.&nbsp;<strong>Ros Phearun<\/strong>, secretary general of the Cambodian Gambling Management Committee of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, urged authorities to shut down illegal gambling in cafes and shops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He noted that such operations were not licensed by the Cambodian Gambling Regulatory Committee ( CEC). He added that\u00a0<strong>only 60 casinos have gaming licences\u00a0<\/strong>but that 140 operate in the country, a figure that reflects the growth of illegal gambling. Phearun added that the regulator is identifying different types of illegal games to make it easier for relevant ministries and local authorities to crack down on such businesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Malaysian Foreign Ministry received 301 reports of job scams in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":17082,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Cambodian authorities, in collaboration with regional foreign ministries, have intensified efforts against illegal gambling operations implicated in human trafficking and forced labor scams. This crackdown follows the rescue of Malaysian citizens lured by false promises of casino employment, highlighting significant regulatory compliance failures and the proliferation of unlicensed gaming establishments within the region. The Cambodian Gambling Management Committee acknowledges a substantial disparity between licensed and operational casinos, signaling a critical challenge for governance frameworks and market integrity.","focusai_entities":"Malaysian Foreign Ministry, Cambodian Foreign Ministry, The Borneo Bulletin, Ros Phearun, Cambodian Gambling Management Committee, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Cambodian Gambling Regulatory Committee (CEC)","focusai_location":"Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Kuala Lumpur, Bavet","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.8), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Enforcement Gaps?","query":"What specific governance framework deficiencies enable such a significant disparity between licensed and operational gaming establishments in Cambodia, and what immediate policy reforms are being considered?"},{"label":"Regional AML Impact?","query":"How will the identified money laundering and human trafficking activities linked to illegal gambling operations impact regional AML compliance standards and cross-border financial intelligence sharing?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,16333],"tags":[229,23911],"class_list":["post-33754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-gambling","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33754"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33772,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33754\/revisions\/33772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}