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Comment by raincom | Hacker News Reader

Even many Indians are trafficked to SE Asia in the name of employment, only to scam Indians. And these scam centers are run by Chinese.

[1] Cambodia: Hundreds of Indians rescued from cyber-scam factories: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-68705913

[2] Cambodia Job Scam Victims Beaten & Deprived Of Meals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5X5xVSiFHQ

[3] In Cambodia, reporting on illegal scam centers brings threats https://www.voanews.com/a/in-cambodia-reporting-on-illegal-s...

[4] They’re Forced to Run Online Scams. Their Captors Are Untouchable. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/28/world/asia/cambodia-cyber... https://archive.is/H7Vex

[5] Inside the 'living hell' of Cambodia's scam operations https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20221109-inside-the-li...

[6] Chinese Mob Has 100K Slaves Working in Cambodian Cybercrime Mills https://www.darkreading.com/cyberattacks-data-breaches/chine...

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These are old news. Everyone keeps beating on Cambodia for this. There have been many crackdowns and the scammers have moved on to other countries. Cambodia is an easy country for western critics to rain on because it does not have the money to run its own PR campaigns like Thailand or Vietnam which also have many of these scam operations.

I have nothing against Cambodia. I posted these links because of the Chinese mafia connection. The latter will move to another country and lure people desperate for jobs (Indians to scam Indians, Chinese to scam fellow countrymen).

If you want to read about Chinese mafia connection, here is the Wikipedia link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triad_(organized_crime)

Try searching for Cambodia and see how many times it shows up. Now try Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Do you want to know the truth? The truth is those are now rich countries that can spend more on PR and wield greater influence on foreign media than Cambodia. So, the international media pile on the easy target that is Cambodia.

Vietnam and Thailand may be corrupt but they've still got much stronger rule of law than Cambodia.

That’s an impressive statement given the recent political event in Thailand where the biggest populist party just got dissolved and the politicians got banned for decades again! As for Vietnam, have you tried living there and doing any business? Check out this first hand experience by an American businessman: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6hAagmq5pwk

The lack of “rule of law” is a convenient phrase to denigrate a country you have little to no experience living in. Cambodia is not perfect but it is not necessarily worse than its neighbors when it comes to the “rule of law.” The subject is complex and full of nuances that a single phrase is not gonna do anyone justice.

Dunno - I've spent time in all those places and Cambodia is easily the worst in that way and I think the only one of the three that supports the stuff mentioned. Apparently the other country in the region with similar stuff going on is Myanmar.

Can you explain how you can be so confident that Cambodia is worse? Have you actually seen the scam compounds yourself? Have you actually talked to a victim? How do you know Cambodia supports the stuff mentioned? Do you have proof? You sound like a keyboard warrior who likes the beat on easy targets.

For comparison, when was the last free and fair election held in Vietnam where you considered to be better? Never!

Which country do you think has death penalty? Cambodia or Vietnam? That’s right Vietnam! Cambodia has none.

Which country has opposition parties and media? Not Vietnam. Do you know how many political parties Cambodia has? 18!

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