Behind Cambodian border casino, Thai military shows off a scam hub
CNA
Thailand alleges that the area had been used as a base of operations by the Cambodian military as well as criminals running transnational scams.
PHNOM PENH: Broken computer monitors in bombed-out offices, scattered fake police uniforms and phoney hundred-dollar bills: these were the vestiges of a frantic escape of suspected cyberscammers fleeing a resort on the Cambodia-Thailand border.Southeast Asia has become the epicentre of the multibillion-dollar online scam industry in which hundreds of thousands of fraudsters - some trafficked, others willing workers - cheat internet users globally with romance and cryptocurrency investment schemes.On Thursday (Mar 12), AFP was invited on a Thai military-organised tour of an area of Cambodia's O'Smach which Thai forces captured during border clashes last year.Thailand says the area had been used as a base of operations by the Cambodian military as well as criminals running transnational scams.
The neighbouring nations engaged in deadly clashes along their disputed frontier for three weeks in December, the latest flare-up in a long-standing border conflict.
Thailand said that month its forces struck several casinos across the border, alleging they were being used as Cambodian weapons storage facilities and firing positions. At least two have been identified by monitors as fronts operating as scam hubs.
"It's by coincidence - the attack on these facilities was because they were used as military bases by the Cambodian forces," Thai defence ministry spokesman Surasant Kongsiri told reporters on the tour.When Thai troops advanced their positions, aiming to neutralise the threat from the Cambodian side, they "discovered that the facilities behind the casinos turned out to be scam centres", he said.Since a fragile truce was agreed in late December, the Thai military has maintained its presence in the area - despite repeated calls by Cambodia for Thailand to remove its forces from O'Smach and other border zones that were previously controlled by Cambodia.Cambodian Information Minister Neth Pheaktra accused Thailand of attempting to justify its "de facto annexation" of Cambodian territory "under the pretext of anti-scam operations"."Such actions represent a dangerous misuse of law enforcement narratives to justify military encroachment," he said in a statement to AFP on Thursday.
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Thailand alleges that the area had been used as a base of operations by the Cambodian military as well as criminals running transnational scams.
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