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On Aug. 23, 8World News reported anecdotal evidence that there are more than 100 Singaporeans stuck in Cambodia.

This information was relayed to the Chinese news outlet by victims from other countries who have made it out of the vice dens run by crime syndicates there.

Held captive in Sihanoukville

The supposed Singaporean victims are said to be held captive in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.

A spokesperson from Gaso, identified only as Wang, told 8World News that these Singaporeans were reportedly scammed by crime syndicates previously, and now made to scam others, perpetuating a cycle that turn other victims into perpetrators.

Anecdotal evidence

Based on the accounts of two scam victims, Wang said these Singaporeans in Cambodia are apparently being held in hotels.

There were supposedly four Singaporean victims in K.B Hotel, according to one Taiwanese female victim.

And there were well over a hundred others in Victory Paradise Resort & Casino, based on the male victim.

Both hotels are in Sihanoukville, a port city in Cambodia that is notorious for its human trafficking and online scam-related crimes commonly linked to online gambling networks, according to multiple global reports.

Yet to hear Singaporeans call for help

Separately, three individuals from the non-profit organisation Global Anti-Scam Organisation (Gaso) told Mothership that they have heard from other scammers that there were Singaporeans in Cambodian compounds run by syndicates.

However, a Gaso spokesperson revealed that it has not received any requests for help from Singaporeans so far, which highlighted one difficulty of getting people out of the network.

Crime syndicates targeting English-speaking individuals

Singaporeans could be targeted to become scammers eventually due to their ability to speak fluent English.

8World News cited an interview by Hong Kong media, which reported that the crime syndicates are scamming English-speaking individuals from Singapore and other regions so that they can be a part of their "pig butchering" scam operations.

However, Wang said she is not aware of this development, which once again, highlights how opaque the situation is.

What is "pig butchering"

According to South China Morning Post, "pig butchering" scams are believed to have originated in China, but have gained traction globally.

The ruse is likened to the process of rearing a pig, which in this case is referring to the scam victim, where the animal is nurtured and fattened before it is ultimately led to the slaughterhouse to be killed.

Both a romance and investment scam combined, scammers, or pig butchers, woo and court victims over a period of time before convincing them to put their money into bogus investment schemes.

To prove that the investments schemes are legitimate and lucrative, victims are usually able to reap the profits of their investment in the early stages, according to The Straits Times.

Victims are then convinced to deposit larger sums of money, before the pig butchers become uncontactable and make off with all of the victim's money.

Carrot-and-stick approach

Victims who have fallen prey to such online scams are mostly from the Southeast Asia region, such as Malaysia and Vietnam, as well as China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, according to several media reports.

Based on the accounts of those who have escaped captivity, victims are usually violently coerced to become cyber slaves and online scammers.

Additionally, victims may be beaten and tortured to extort ransom from their kin and/ or sold to other crime syndicates.

But successful scammers are also enriched and can make good money as well.

It is this combination -- a carrot-and-stick approach -- that complicates victims' access to assistance to break free from the syndicates.

For example, those who willingly scam and are adept at it would eventually be hard pressed to ask for help as victims as they are perpetrators but are looking for a way to quit.

Separately, Sinchew Daily cited a Gaso spokesperson saying that some of these scam victims choose to risk themselves by taking up dubious job offers in Cambodia, despite knowing that it is a scam.

She said it is possible that these individuals do so knowingly as they believe they will be rescued eventually.

Thousands of people involved

A recent Al Jazeera article reported the Cambodia director of the human rights NGO International Justice Mission (IJM) saying that there are "thousands of people" who are forced to work in scamming compounds in Cambodia.

These compounds range from hotels, casinos, resorts, residential developments to apartment complexes.

In the 2022 trafficking in persons report, Cambodia was downgraded to Tier 3, which is the lowest tier reserved for "countries whose governments do not fully meet the minimum [anti-trafficking] standards and are not making significant efforts to do so".

However, it is worth noting that a Tier 1 ranking does not mean that the country has no incidences of human trafficking or that it is combatting human trafficking sufficiently.

These scams are also taking place in other countries, such as the Philippines, Laos and Myanmar.

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Top image by Christophe95 from Wikimedia Commons