Asia's Tinder Swindlers: Exposing Love Scam Rings In Cambodia | Talking Point | Full Episode

I met Wang on a dating platform. He will share photos of himself with his friends or show me photos of dinner. He seems like a successful all-rounder in business and also knows how to cook and take care of his family. He is like every woman's. He dreams that he starts flirting with me telling me your voice is so sweet are you attached? his favorite quote is for our future he will use many romantic quotes that no one told me so make me feel wow like in the modern fairy tale

love

stories that start like any other until I invest about 50k in this investment platform in two days, he is gone, he will just share them with me like, oh, my analyst informed me that there will be a good opportunity ahead, so I invested about 300 plus thousand but in one night I lost it all more than 10 million Singapore dollars that's what victims like mavis and kayla lost to their online

love

rs through fake investment platforms last year in this special edition of talk

point

i want to find out why these women are falling in love me, under condition of anonymity, my contact wants to be known only as Lee.

He is one of thousands authenticated whose goal is to make women fall in love with him. His targets are Americans and Asians, including Singaporeans. The victims are also increasingly younger and more educated. Overseas, according to local news reports, fraudulent pig slaughter compounds are found in several places in Cambodia, but Mr. Lee also tells me that fraudulent compounds are more concentrated in a coastal city called Sihanoukville, the area is well known for its pristine beaches, how did a place like this emerge? This has become a breeding ground for pig slaughter syndicates. I head to the heart of Sihanoukville to discover that it seems so secret that who knows what is happening there before.

I met another guy on the same dating platform in a short period of time. One month he scanned me over 150,000. He was very devastated and approached Wang for advice. He consoled me and said that and claimed that he can help me recover the amount that he had lost. He asked me to put money into this. platform but I was very reluctant so in the end he told me ok it doesn't matter I will just deposit this 520 for you it means I love you when this whole process is already over my profit is actually 100 so immediately He promised to draw again. this to my bank account definitely feel good there really is such a thing see hanukkah a coastal city about five hours drive from Phnom Penh the international media calls it a dangerous city due to the high volume of crimes, including kidnappings and murders, the Reports reveal that this place is plagued by Chinese criminal networks.

I'm here because I've been told this is the area I should go to if I want to find syndicates involved in love

scam

s. I have noticed that virtually every sign on every building has signs in two languages. language and chinese language, a local is guiding me to one of the areas famous for crime and online

scam

gangs. This whole area with many buildings that local people call Chinatown, looks like a heavily guarded condominium complex, it makes you wonder what's going on inside that. He had to be closely guarded outside. It looks like a typical apartment complex, but local reports say this area is where multi-union scammers live and work.

They engage in various types of scams, including love scams. I can see that there are shops in there, so it is quite self-sufficient in recent years the local police have read the scam operation in Chinatown and few people have been arrested. Local reports say Chinatown is among dozens of scam centers operating in Sihanoukville. I'm on my way to meet uvirak. political analyst, he has been closely following the development of fraudulent activities in Sihanoukville over the past few years. How did Sihanoukville become a hotbed of fraudulent pig slaughtering activities? Centerville is a strategic location, it has the most important deep water port for all of our imports and exports. a legitimate long term Chinese investment that includes building roads and highways, a lot of the legitimate money flows also come from people flows, a lot of these shady characters ride that and they just come and we're starting to see in the city that is growing so much. quickly that casino is becoming the front and whatever is happening whether it is money laundering, various fields and love scams is no exception, everything happens under these banners of development with little supervision by the authorities over their operations, some casinos have become a shell for organized crime syndicates.

This resulted in the authority intensifying enforcement of the law. There are many more efforts to try to clean up the image of Cinderella photos and crackdown videos signed on the online surface, but many of these crackdowns are very few and far between. That's why we're still seeing crimes in Sydneyville before. I drove through Chinatown in Sihanoukville, according to Khmer Times. A local media outlet. Condominium complexes like those in Chinatown can house tens of thousands of people. How do scam syndicates recruit on such a massive scale? I'm calling Jacob Sims, who has been running a non-governmental organization in Cambodia for the past two years.

He is in the US for a few weeks for an international conference. Jake. How do these syndicates recruit scammers? What we are seeing is that Facebook ads or ads on other social media channels are used to attract people, they are offered a job with an attractive salary, often they are promised financing for travel and visa expenses and then , when they arrive at the centers, they are forced to carry out scams against their will. These job offers are open to anyone abroad who is interested in applying for work in Cambodia. The people who have been forced to work in these complexes.

What countries do they come from? We have seen the largest number of Chinese from China and Thais from Malaysia and Indonesia. workers, but we are also seeing people from the philippines, myanmar, bangladesh, even in Turkey, human traffickers supply scam syndicates trained in multiple languages, they also fill the labor gap caused by the pandemic. Jacob's organization is one of the few in Cambodia that actively rescues trafficking victims from scam compounds. How are these people rescued? There are hotlines, so when we receive a complaint, a referral, we present a request for intervention to the government and then we coordinate between the police and the embassy to try to motivate and facilitate a rescue.

What do you know about the conditions of that confinement that we've heard vary from what you would consider maybe quite mild maybe they're not allowed to leave they've had their passports taken away but they're given adequate food and paid all the way? the variety of people who suffer significant physical abuse, are tasered, have food, water and sleep withheld, are not paid, but surely not all of them are victims, I mean, some of them might be there because they want to. I expected the money, right, that's right, uh, it is. It is definitely not the case that all of these people are there against their will, how can you verify that the people who contacted you have in fact been victims of trafficking, so it is impossible for us to

full

y verify that we are collecting testimonies from them and then In fact, we are also asking for additional witnesses who are in similar situations and we are looking for consistency of their stories in different media reports that have come to light.

A large number of those people are victims of human trafficking, but what about these trafficked scammers? After they were rescued and I joined a group of women who took matters into their own paths, it seems he is moving in for the kill. I put around 300 out of 1000 on the trading platform, but in one night I lost everything. I found this. Google Reaper search feature. I didn't expect that this photo was actually linked to a Waypoor account. I confronted him. He would say that this person is impersonating him using his photos. I didn't share this with my family members because they will definitely think.

How are you so stupid to be able to scam someone you never met face to face? I invested about 50 thousand in this investment platform in two days, it disappeared. He requested some intimate videos and photos of me at the time I broke up with him my friend already warned me that he could use this to threaten you I closed all my social media what can I do for this I end my life it's very stupid but it's really very mentally torturous I end to discover that some scammers themselves are victims. Remember that Lee, the scammer I met earlier, also said that one of the things he really wanted to do with the money he would make from the scam is take a cruise on the Recon River.

Well, I've fixed it and I'm on my way to meet him in the valley a month ago. Mr. Lee went from a worker in a Chinese restaurant to a trained lover and there are many others like him who are schooled in the art of making women like me part with our money in return. Because of the romance and the promise of financial benefits, I suppose Mr. Lee was lucky to be rescued, but the fact is that he is still stuck here in Cambodia. I will be going home soon and I hope he can do the same in Singapore.

I follow him. The Journey of Scam Victims I contacted Grace Wynn, she is a spokesperson for the global anti-scam organization based in the US, most of the members of this group are victims of scams, including those in Singapore There are also guards. One of her teams does something called scam bait. In scam bait, which is the end game, the first

point

is to get the URL of the black platforms associated with the scam company. Black URLs are essentially links to fraudulent investment platforms. Can you teach me how to do it? Yes, I'm happy to do it.

To start, I will have to create a social media profile with stock photos purchased online and then contact potential love scammers on dating platforms and social media sites. These scammers tend to identify themselves as businessmen or investors and post photos and videos flaunting their luxury. lifestyles so I'm

talking

to this guy who claims to be Singaporean but grew up overseas, we're getting to know each other, he even asked me before about my relationship status, I told him I enjoy reading and he replied that he enjoys reading too. like. In fact, he even sent me pictures of some investing books that he thinks he should read.

Well, he looks like he's coming in for the kill. He sent me a link that is supposed to take me to a mining pool once I click on it. so I have to create an account with customer service and to activate the account I have to deposit a minimum of 500 Singapore dollars obviously I didn't send any money and he is getting impatient his messages are coming fast and furious and at one point he even tried to video call me , what I want to know now is how this link will help in the anti-scam effort. Great, now that I have the black URL, what happens next, what Gasol does is post it on our site so that those who haven't been scammed yet can Google the URLs to see if they are legit or not.

Are there risks in

exposing

myself to a scammer? It is not that risky for your physical health but psychologically it can be very difficult for some people who end up reviving parts of their skin considering the mental cost why continue with the scam bait scam quotes help uh gaso understand the tactics that they change and this helps prevent future victims. The second thing is that there is a limit to what local laws do. law enforcement can do it, it is clear that the scammers are outside the jurisdiction of the countries that the scan victims live in, so fraudulent dating can be therapeutic for the victims, they are a kind of revenge aspect , which is that they pretend that this scammer is just like their own scammer and now they will take revenge on them by wasting their time.

Singapore is one of the richest countries in the world, making us targets for scammers. The unions are becoming more sophisticated and better organized and have an army of scammers. They are well trained in sales techniques and psychology and prey on the desire not only for love but also for money. They are also notoriously difficult to uproot, but we must stop the bad guys from winning. One way is for more victims to come forward so that fewer do so. Being surprised by the scammer's tactics, because for me, the only thing I have learned is that we should never think, no, it won't happen to me.