New Delhi: In a disturbing revelation, many Indian women trafficked to Cambodia by Chinese cybercriminals are being forced to honey-trap unsuspecting individuals back home through explicit video calls. This was exposed by Telangana resident Munshi Prakash, who fell victim to these fraudsters. Posted profiles on various job sites A BTech graduate in civil engineering, Munshi Prakash was working in IT firm in Hyderabad and when he began seeking employment abroad. For better opportunities, he posted his profile on various job sites. After few days, he was contacted by Vijay, an agent in Cambodia. The agent promised a job in Australia and informed the victim that he needed travel history before moving to Australia. Placed in Tower C with other Indians But soon after reaching, Kuala Lumpur, the victim was taken to Phnom Penh on March 12 where a local representative of the agent collected US dollars equivalent to Rs 85,000 from Prakash. Shortly thereafter, Chinese nationals seized his passport and transported him to Krong Bavet, a large compound with multiple towers. The victim was palced in Tower C with other Indians who were subjected to a ten-day training program aimed at creating and utilizing fake social media profiles of girls in Telugu and other languages. Confined in dark room Munshi Prakash was confined in a dark room for a week and endured severe torture. When the victim fell sick, they took him out but forced to continue scamming. Despite the tough situations, Prakash managed to record a selfie video and sent an email to his sister in Tamil Nadu. 12-day stint in jail Prakashs sister informed the Indian embassy, as well as the governments of Telangana and Andhra Prakash. On April 16, Cambodian police initially rescued him from the traffickers but he was arrested on fabricated charges imposed by the Chinese gang, leading to a 12-day stint in jail. However, the authorities verfied the charges were false and he was deported to Delhi on July 5 with 9 other victims. 3,000 Indians trapped in Cambodia Munshi Prakash also revealed that approximately 3,000 Indians from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Women were forced to engage in explicit video calls from their detention camps. The cybercriminal gang converts the proceeds from these scams into crytocurrency, then into US dollars, and ultimately into Chinese Yuan. Hundreds of Indians rescued from cyber-scam factories The Indian government has so far rescued 250 citizens in Cambodia who were forced to run online scams. Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world are estimated to have fallen prey to human traffickers running job scams in South East Asia.
