“It was sheer luck… we were almost killed and here we are now, talking about it,” a relieved Semil Dev tells TNM. The 23-year-old from Kerala’s Vadakara was one among the group of young graduates who travelled to Cambodia in October after being offered lucrative jobs. Little did they know that they would be tortured, threatened with murder and risk their lives to escape a Chinese criminal gang that will stop at nothing to swindle money
Soon after they joined work, the men realised it was a classic Cambodian scam centre where their job was to target people back in India and other south Asian countries. They returned home with only a few injuries, but there are hundreds of others in that country who haven’t been so lucky.
Terms such as ‘cybercrime’ and ‘digital arrest’ are widely known in India now, after thousands of Indians having lost money through fraud calls. According to a report by India Today, as of October this year, the Home Ministry’s cyber wing has reported a total of 92,334 cases related to digital arrest fraud.
The seven men from Kerala – Semil Dev, Ajmal MT, Arun SA, Abhinav Suresh, Abhinanth CP, Roshan, and Aswanth Babu – narrated the other side of the story to TNM – what happens inside these call centres. The scam centre also used the identity of a real police officer from Maharashtra, who TNM spoke to for this story.
Their testimony is also a scary reminder of the fact that the confidential data of thousands of Indians is in the hands of gangs running extortion rackets from a Chinese proxy state whose economy – and law enforcement infrastructure – is in shambles.
“It was my cousin who offered me a job abroad. I was working in a travel company in Kozhikode and my family encouraged me to take the job. Initially, my cousin mentioned Malaysia, then changed it to Pattaya in Thailand. Finally, I went to Bangkok and from there I was asked to go to Cambodia,” 27-year-old Ajmal explains.
His story is similar to those of the other six men. “My friend Anurag who lives in Cambodia told me about the job. He said it involved sales and advertising, or jobs on betting platforms. He often mentioned that it was an easy job with an attractive package. The basic salary was around Rs 1 lakh and the package included food and accommodation,” Semil adds.
The company was introduced to them as Infinity International Sales and Advertisement. The realisation that they were joining a scamming platform came gradually after they started working at their new office. The money was good and others may have been tempted to go with it, but this group was different.
While the men escaped, their experience highlights the continuing worrying trend of educated Indians getting tricked with lucrative job offers in Cambodia. Though the Indian government has carried out rescue missions and brought back at least 500 people who were trapped in ‘digital slavery’, the scam also exposes how loopholes in our law allow recruitment agencies to traffic prospective candidates.
The scamming centre
The men initially travelled to Bangkok, which shares a border with Cambodia. Then they were asked to go to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. From there, they travelled to Krong Poi Pet, a city located approximately 8 hours by road from the Cambodian capital. The men reached on different dates in the first and second week of October. They had paid for the flight tickets and other expenses related to the travel since they were promised that the company would reimburse them after they take up the job.
“These victims will often not be told that they are going to Cambodia, which many people realise is dangerous. Often the traffickers will tell them that they are going to Thailand, which sounds safer. It’s easy to then transfer the victims over the border into Cambodia,” David Whitehouse, a journalist and researcher based in Paris who has been working on stories related to cyber slaves in Cambodia, told TNM.
The company was situated on 14 to 15 acres of land, which had several large buildings housing various companies, employee accommodations, restaurants, and more. In a few short videos shared by the men with TNM, several modern buildings with security guards can be seen. One structure is a three-story building that provides air-conditioned housing for the workers. Additionally, there are one-storey and two-storey buildings visible in the footage too. Notably, these complexes were invariably situated in a rural place, several kilometres away from cities.
According to the Keralites, the company provided free food and accommodation. There were several restaurants within the complex where employees could eat anything they liked. “If one is willing to work there, they can enjoy a comfortable life. For accommodation, they offer three-sharing and four-sharing rooms with air conditioning and other amenities. There are many restaurants in the complex serving different types of food and drinks. However, for trainees, alcoholic beverages and other intoxicants are not available,” Ajmal adds.
“We are unsure whether everyone there was working willingly or if they had no other option. We didn’t get much of a chance to interact with many people. What we sensed is that some of them seemed to enjoy the thrill of scamming people. They may have adapted to this routine over time,” says Semil.
The interview process comprised two tests – typing speed and language proficiency in English and Hindi, while regional languages were also considered. The job contract was for six months. “Once you get selected you cannot go outside, they do not even let you go and collect your luggage. They arrange an agent to deliver it,” Ajmal adds.
The work hours lasted for a gruelling 13 hours, sometimes going up to 15 hours per day. Employees were required to submit their personal mobile phones before entering the workplace, which were returned to them only after the work hours. “Similarly, we were not allowed to use our phones after midnight. Our sleep was very important to them,” Ajmal says.
The initial days after joining the company were completely dedicated to training, which included memorising different scripts for scamming and practising phone conversations with senior employees. “The first day they provided a script. It was in English and I noticed words like SBI [State Bank of India] and credit card. Initially, I was confused as to how this job was related to SBI. Then I asked a senior colleague, a Pakistani man, and he explained that we need to call people and follow the script to make them pay up money to the company,” Ajmal explains.
It was not only people from India, but some from other countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh were also working in the same company.
The operation
According to the Keralites, the scam centres possess phone numbers, Aadhaar card numbers, bank account numbers, and addresses of several Indians.
The operation comprises three ‘lines’. The employees in the first line act as customer care executives of SBI and call people in India. They initially tell the person that he has a credit card with an outstanding balance of Rs 1 lakh, which needs to be repaid immediately.
When customers who do not have a credit card respond innocently that they do not have any card, these representatives convince them that someone had misused their identity and taken the credit card in their name. “We would then ask them if they ever used any of their ID cards for hotel booking or other services. Obviously, they would reply yes and that’s when we would position ourselves as saviours and offer legal support,” says Arun.
They inform the customer that a police officer from Delhi would call them within an hour to file a complaint and get legal help.
This leads to the role of the second line in the process, where employees dress up like Indian police officers and the background is set up to mimic an Indian police station. To make it more authentic, a photo of Gandhi is placed on the wall behind the caller. The caller’s face is made to resemble real-life Indian police officers using Artificial Intelligence. If customers Google the name of the officer, they would find the same image, which helps with credibility and makes people more likely to believe what they are told. Clearly, the scam also involved stealing the identity of some of the country’s top cops.
“From my understanding, they are using Mumbai Sub Inspector Hemraj Koli’s ID to make people believe that it was a real police officer calling,” Arun says.
When TNM reached out to SI Hemraj Koli regarding his identity being used in scam centers, he said that he came to know about this only after seeing it in the news. “They have got my name and photo correct but my police rank is wrong as is the logo on my badge. No Maharashtra police logo has the police station’s name on it,” he says. His rank is Assistant Police Inspector (API).
The plausible way in which the call centres stumbled upon his ID is on a news website that had published the picture of the ID card years ago in a story related to him.
He says that he was posted in Mumbai between 2013 and 2019 and hasn’t worked in the city since then. “I’ve been working in Malkapur MIDC police station in Buldhana district since July 2023. I have registered a complaint with the cyber crimes department in Mumbai and there are two FIRs in Nagpur and Amravati cities concerning my identity theft,” he adds.
Arun says that the fake police officer reads out the customer’s Aadhaar number and claims that illegal advertisements, pornography, and other unlawful activities have been associated with that number. “Additionally, he mentions a case linked to Naresh Goyal, the founder of Jet Airways, who has been accused in money laundering cases. The customer starts to panic. And then the officer pretends to call the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and enquire if there are any other complaints against this person’s Aadhaar number. The response would be yes, there are around 30 to 40 cases. This makes the customer extremely anxious and they usually ask the police officer what to do,” he adds about the second line process.
Then the police officer advises the customer to transfer money from all their bank accounts into a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) account for a specific procedure. Once the funds are moved into the fake RBI account, the scammers take the money and cut all communication. “Some customers provide additional information such as details about shareholdings, land, and gold,” Arun adds.
The men did not know much about the third line. “But we understood that it included transactions and money collection,” Semil adds.
Arun believes that someone from India was definitely helping the scamsters get data on customers. “Otherwise how can they access this much data on Indians?”
The scam centre calls are made to coincide with the banking hours in India. After the calls are done, there is another item on the agenda. The company officials would assess each employee’s performance, including how much money they managed to bring in that day. “The officials listen to call recordings along with the employees and take note of the questions customers ask so that the script is updated regularly. Additionally, if an employee does not meet performance expectations, they are made to write impositions 1,000 and 1,500 times,” Ajmal adds.
The consequence of saying no
Immediately after coming to know that their job was to swindle people, all the seven men from Kerala refused to work there. “We did not go there together, but the unwillingness to do that job united us. And that is what gave us the strength to fight,” Arun says.
“People are dying by suicide because of such scammers, how could we participate in this?” Semil asks.
In June this year, a 20-year-old student in Bengaluru died by suicide, reportedly after losing money in a cyber scam. Similarly, a 51-year-old pharmacist in Maharashtra took his own life, allegedly after losing Rs 60 lakh to online fraudsters.
The physical and mental torture started the day they said no. “Initially, they took us to a torture room, which is present in every building, and asked us to stand until allowed to sit. For almost a day we kept standing. We got beaten when we tried to sit down on the floor,” Arun says.
Then the company authorities took them back to their room and locked them up. They also seized all electronic devices to make sure that they could not communicate with anyone. But Arun had a second phone which he concealed inside his shoe and it was this phone that helped them survive in Cambodia for the next 11 days. “I understood that our ordeal was not going to end soon. So, I hid my second phone inside my shoe,” Arun recalls.
With that one phone, they got in touch with their families and informed them that they were safe. “We told our families that we would be in training for a few weeks and would not be able to use our phones… just to make sure they would not panic if they were unable to reach us,” Ajmal says.
“We were left with no other option. How could we tell our families that we were trapped here? We were afraid that if we shared this with them, they would inform the police and then the company authorities would come to know about our phone,” Semil says.
The men decided to try talking to the ‘boss’ who ran the company. Before that, they informed Semil’s friend Anurag that they were not ready to do this job and it was not what he had promised. “Initially he said he would arrange another job. And we waited a few days, but nothing happened. Then we directly communicated with the boss, a Chinese man, with the help of his translator. We told him that our friends had cheated us and we did not want to work there. That’s when we came to know that it was our friends Anurag and Athiradh, and Ajmal’s cousin Naseeruddin Sha who had sold us for money,” Semil says.
The three tricksters had collected 540 USD – approximately Rs 45,500 – from each of them.
The men heard that agents can earn 2800 USD, which is approximately Rs 2.36 lakh, for each person delivered to the company.
The boss said he was ready to release the seven youths if the agents were willing to repay the money paid by the company. If not, the company would sell the youths to another company and recover the money spent on them. “When we contacted Anurag and the others, they said they cannot afford to repay the money currently and asked us to “adjust” for a few days,” says Ajmal.
The nightmare
For over a week they were kept locked up in a room and then they were informed that they were being moved to another office. “It was located on a mud road, there were no other buildings. After reaching there we got to know that it was not an office but a place used to torture people,” Arun says. The torture room was around 7 km from the office. “It took less than 30 minutes to travel there,” he adds.
“They beat us to kill, not just to hurt,” Semil says as he recollected the bitter memories. “We were in a room with no AC, no ventilation, nothing. They did not provide us sufficient food either. All that torture made us mentally and physically unstable...” he breaks off.
“They hurt us with iron rods and liquor bottles. Then they had a shock stick. Once they use it, we cannot lift our bodies for a few minutes. All of us were left with several injuries. Semil had an injury on his leg, and Ajmal and Abhinanth’s hands got injured. Roshan had a head injury. I was not able to pee for a few days,” Arun says.
In what could have been a highly dangerous move if the phone had been found, they shared the location pin from both the office and the torture room with their families.
Chinese casinos turned into scam centres?
Cambodia is a South-East Asian nation located in the Indochinese Peninsula. The country remains predominantly rural and plagued by poverty and inequality. The people are still overcoming the Cambodian Genocide, in which more than 1.5 million people were killed during the tenure of the Khmer Rouge, a radical communist movement that held power from 1975 to 1979.
Diplomatic relations between China and Cambodia were officially established in 1958. Cambodia has received substantial bilateral aid from China and economic links between the two have continued to grow. According to Dr Kin Phea, the Director General of the International Relations Institute of Cambodia, China’s influence in Cambodia has drastically increased over the last two decades, particularly when it comes to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and military cooperation.
According to a report in The Dial, Cambodia’s foray into online scamming started in 2013, when it became part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which lent money to other countries if they used Chinese state-owned enterprises for development projects. However, the scams became widespread during the Covid pandemic. Last year, the UN reported that over 1 lakh individuals were trafficked and tricked into working in online scam centres in Cambodia, which are run by Chinese nationals.
A report published in May this year by the United States Institute of Peace states that casinos and hotels left empty in Cambodia due to the pandemic have been adapted and utilised for online scams. This has led to a widespread network of elite-protected criminal activities across the country, aided by “weak governance, slack law enforcement, and inadequate regulation”. The report says that the return on cyber scamming in Cambodia is estimated to exceed 12.5 billion USD annually, which is half the country’s formal GDP.
These scam centres have been reported in Myanmar, India, and even in some locations in Thailand.
According to Shariful Hasan, a journalist based in Bangladesh, digital arrest cases are becoming increasingly common in the country. So are job scams and the exploitation of people as digital slaves in Cambodia. “In 2021 and 2022, following the COVID-19 pandemic, many people from Bangladesh travelled to Cambodia in search of employment due to economic difficulties. Over the past two years, more than 100 people have returned home while approximately 4,000 to 5,000 people remain trapped there in these scam centres. However, it is very difficult to track them. Recently, the Bangladeshi government issued a circular to warn citizens about such job scams,” he adds.
Fixing responsibility
Who is to blame is the big question here. The answer spans from the Indian government to the Cambodian authorities. Lack of legislation or legal framework to regulate recruitment agencies in India becomes a major hurdle in curbing trafficking.
TNM tried to contact journalists in Cambodia to gather more information about the scam centres operating there. However, they declined to speak in the light of the arrest of Mech Dara, an award-winning reporter recognised for his work on human trafficking in the cyber scam industry. He was charged with “incitement to provoke serious social chaos”, which in Cambodia is often used to subdue government critics.
A report in VOA says that several journalists reporting on the illegal activities connected to the scam centre industry in Cambodia are being threatened, harassed, and even detained.
According to the World Press Freedom Index 2024, Cambodia ranks 151st out of 180 countries. Interestingly, Cambodia has a higher level of press freedom compared to India, which ranks 159th.
David Whitehouse told TNM that the centres continue to operate because the Cambodian government allows them to. “No one has ever been prosecuted for running a cyber scam centre in Cambodia. A police ‘raid’ on a centre can consist of the police simply handing over a list of names to the managers in the compound and then waiting outside. The police are often willing to sell the slaves back to the compounds for the right price,” he said.
He also said that the Cambodian government veers between denying that the problem really exists and pretending to deal with it. “The fact is that the financial flows which come from the centres make it impossible for the government to tackle them. The government needs the money from the Chinese mafia too much. There has been a trend in 2024 for cyber scam centres in Myanmar to relocate to Cambodia. The operators know that Cambodia is the safest place to operate,” he says.
According to Sidharth Kulangara Thodiyil, a cyber expert who has intervened in many online crimes and helped the victims, the loopholes in the law play a significant role in these fraudulent job scams.
“Fraudulent agents promise well-paid employment but often exploit individuals for forced labour or sell them to human trafficking rings. Loopholes in existing laws allow agents, consultants, and companies to escape accountability. The Indian police have limitations in pursuing inquiries, especially when the criminals are from other countries. Similarly, there is no centralised regulatory body to monitor and audit job placement agencies, which allows many fraudulent agencies to continue their operations,” Sidharth states.
Sidharth also told TNM that he has been getting emails and threatening calls from unknown numbers after he got involved in the matter. “My life is in danger, but I still believe that using the skills and technology we have today I can support those in need,” Sidharth adds.
While the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issues licenses for overseas recruitment agents, fake job offers are still circulated widely in India. “Prospective emigrants are advised to cross-check the genuineness of the RA by visiting the government website www.emigrate.gov.in and clicking the link List of active RA,” an MEA press release states.
“Many of the centres are repurposed Chinese gambling operations. These compounds are run by the Chinese mafia. They are unable to recruit cyber slaves without the help of human traffickers in the countries where the cyber slaves come from. Governments in countries like India must realise that they are dealing with human trafficking which starts on their own territory,” David adds.
Due to the explosion of such job scams in Cambodia, the Indian embassy there issued an advisory for those travelling to Cambodia and Laos for jobs, asking them to verify their employers with authorities.
In a press release on November 25, the Embassy of India alerted Indians seeking jobs in Cambodia and cautioned them not to fall prey to unauthorised agents. It also mentioned that over 360 Indian nationals have been rescued and repatriated to India through their intervention.
A lucky escape
For the seven young men from Kerala, it was indeed a fortuitous escape from the country.
“In the initial days, every vehicle that came to the office was a ray of hope. But as days passed, hope dimmed. I thought they would kill us or take our organs to recover the money they spent on us,” Arun says.
“While they were torturing us, they used to warn us about 10 Malayalis who had earlier declined to work with them. I still remember their words: ‘Now nobody knows where they are’,” he recalls.
“We are not sure what would have happened to us if the car driver had refused to help us,” he shudders as he narrates how they finally escaped.
After holding them in the torture room for 11 days, the boss decided to shift them to another office. “They said another office, but we’re sure that they planned to kill us,” says Ajmal.
Luckily, the driver of the car used to shift them was not a company employee but hired from outside.
“During our journey, we opened up to the driver using a translator. Initially, we said we needed food and had to use the restroom. When the driver stopped the vehicle, we quickly jumped out with our luggage and passports. However, the driver chased and caught us. Then we explained our situation and asked for his help, even using a threatening tone. Eventually, he agreed to drop us off at the Indian Embassy for Rs 28,000 and we immediately accepted,” Abhinanth says.
With the help of the Embassy, they arrived at Kochi airport on October 28.
After they filed a complaint against the men who cheated them, the Nedumbassery police registered an FIR on the same day. “We transferred the case to the Vadakara police station two days later,” Arun KB, Circle Inspector of Nedumbassery police station, informed TNM. When contacted, Vadakara Circle Inspector N Sunil Kumar stated that they had taken statements from the men and officially re-registered the case on December 2, with the investigation set to begin immediately.
However, Semil and Arun claim that the police are not showing enough interest in the case.