The southeast Asian deception case continues to ferment and affect many places in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan
Thousands of Taiwanese people have been trafficked into the hardest hit areas
What kind of social dilemma does Taiwan reflect behind the shattered gold rush dream?
Rescue of All Parties in Progress The Chinese Foreign Ministry has spoken out and is actively looking for rescue
Trafficking in human beings Telecommunications fraud Gambling and drug trafficking
What kind of black industrial chain has southeast Asia formed?
What practical obstacles need to be overcome for international cooperation in the fight against crime?
"See the World Today"
There is no "diplomatic relations" with Cambodia and there is no way to rescue them
The Taiwan authorities can only dissuade the ransom at the airport
In the past few days, thousands of young people in Taiwan have been exposed by being lured to Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries by high salaries, and as the incident continues to dig deeper, the case has snowballed like a snowball on both sides of the strait. In the past, the victims of these fraud gangs against Chinese mainland were mostly mainlanders. Since the beginning of the epidemic, Chinese mainland tightened immigration policies, fraud syndicates have turned to deceiving young people in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and other places who speak Chinese in order to facilitate the implementation of online gambling and telecommunications fraud.
Fraud gangs use high-paying jobs, online romance and other methods to defraud victims out of the country, confiscate their mobile phones and documents as soon as they get off the plane, restrict their personal freedom, and use violent coercion to force victims to continuously ask for property from their families until there is no oil and water to squeeze, and then force them to "find alternatives" and lure other innocent victims.
Those who disobey are lightly closed to small black houses, severe beatings, and electric shocks, and in severe cases, they are sexually assaulted, framed for drug trafficking, and even organ harvesting. The media on the island of Taiwan even circulated a sensational "organ price list." Although the authenticity cannot be verified, it is enough to cause panic among the people on the island, especially those who have "lost their relatives".
How many people in Taiwan have been tricked into going to Cambodia? Taiwanese police and authorities have given different accounts. According to Taiwan police, from January to July this year, more than 8,600 Taiwanese people went to Cambodia, and only 5,000 returned, estimating that about 3,000 were stranded there. However, the Taiwan authorities said that at present, 373 victims are in charge and 40 have been rescued.
The first to track down this transnational fraud incident was an Internet celebrity named "Good Stick Bump" in Taiwan, who not only filmed the video, but also went to Cambodia with the victim's family to rescue the victim. When Taiwan's non-governmental organizations and Internet celebrities tried to rescue the victims, the Taiwan authorities reacted very coldly, criticizing them for "finding nothing to do, in order to spread false rumors." It was not until the victims testified that Taiwan's foreign affairs department changed its words to "thanks." Tsai Ing-wen, who has always loved to speak out on social platforms, did not mention anything about this, which caused dissatisfaction among the people on the island and said it bluntly.
So what exactly are the DPP authorities busy with during this period? A retrospective timeline shows that the DPP authorities are busy receiving U.S. House speaker Pelosi, who has visited the Taiwan region; Busy receiving Lithuania's "delegation to visit Taiwan" and busy "escorting" Lin Zhijian, a "little British boy" whose degree was revoked by National Taiwan University for plagiarizing his papers, he had no time to take care of the Taiwanese people trapped in Cambodia.
Since the Taiwan region has no "diplomatic relations" with Cambodia, the Taiwan police can only send additional police forces to deploy at the airport, in addition to holding up signs to remind, seeing people suspected of going to Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and other places to dissuade them, the effect can be imagined.
Taiwan police have also recently begun to sweep up the human snake group that is wandering around, saying that in cooperation with the Thai police, the main suspect of the human snake group was found, and when it transited through Thailand from Cambodia, it joined hands with the Thai police to intercept it. At present, the Taiwan police have listed the leaders of the Taiwan gangs as the targets of investigation, hoping to cut off the financial owners behind them and dismantle the fraud syndicate.
Sichuan International Sister City Exchange Consultant Li Yutong, Director of Cambodia (Chengdu) Business Center:
At present, the Taiwan authorities' crackdown on the people and snake groups on the island is only a measure to cure the symptoms rather than the root causes, because it is impossible to solve the fundamental problem without attacking the source. In order to block cross-strait relations, the Taiwan authorities have also actively promoted the so-called "New Southbound Policy," which has also made some Taiwan people believe that Southeast Asia is full of gold and everywhere is paradise. It can be said that to a certain extent, the Taiwan authorities have also become "accomplices" of the fraud syndicate.
Li Yutong: Not only that, but the Taiwan authorities have also bowed to the criminal syndicate and exchanged money for the freedom of the deceived people, which is actually a disguised recognition of the rationality of human trafficking, which has also led to the ransom price getting higher and higher, and the families of the deceived people are miserable. The Taiwan authorities' "inaction" or even "arbitrary behavior" naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of the people, but on the contrary, the China Unification Promotion Party and other organizations actively cooperated closely with various relevant departments on the mainland and went all out to mobilize all resources in Cambodia to rescue the deceived people.
On August 19, Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said that Taiwan compatriots are Chinese citizens, and it is our duty to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Taiwan compatriots, and that "Taiwan compatriots overseas can contact Chinese embassies and consulates abroad for help in a timely manner if they encounter any difficulties." At the same time, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that the Chinese government is fully committed to safeguarding the safety and legitimate rights and interests of overseas Chinese citizens, including Hong Kong compatriots and Taiwan compatriots. Chinese embassies and consulates in relevant countries are actively searching for and rescuing relevant personnel.
The Chinese Embassy in Cambodia revealed on August 25 that it has received more than a dozen requests for help from Taiwan compatriots by telephone, email, and other means. The Chinese Embassy in Cambodia will actively communicate with local police departments and supervise relevant cases.
Sichuan International Sister City Exchange Consultant Li Yutong, Director of Cambodia (Chengdu) Business Center:
Chinese mainland rescue channels are divided into two types: official and private, and the two methods are also closely integrated. With the support of the General Police Department of the Ministry of the Interior of Cambodia, the gendarmerie and the Chinese community, hundreds of deceived people on the mainland and Taiwan have been rescued, and the arrogance of criminal groups has been cracked down on from the source.
Li Yutong: In addition, more importantly, the means are also flexible and diverse. For example, the Ministry of Public Security's "Great Persuasion to Return" campaign launched last year has also allowed more than 230,000 people engaged in fraudulent activities abroad to return to China to surrender themselves within a time limit, otherwise their domestic hukou and accounts will be cancelled or frozen. It can be said that the mainland's crackdown on telecommunications fraud is a comprehensive and comprehensive management, and the source terminals are grasped together, and the effect is of course very obvious.
Large-scale human trafficking and deception cases broke out
What kind of social and economic difficulties does it reflect in Taiwan?
In recent years, Sino-US trade frictions have allowed some Taiwan-funded enterprises to return to the island, and a large amount of repatriated capital has pushed up the island's stock market and housing prices, creating an "illusion" that the island's economy has continued to improve under the administration of Tsai Ing-wen.
But in fact, in addition to the shortage of international chips, so that the performance of semiconductor companies such as TSMC has grown, many small and medium-sized enterprises are struggling. In addition, the DPP authorities have provoked the situation in the Taiwan Strait and undermined cross-strait relations, resulting in difficulties in Taiwan's economic recovery and a deep and dire employment situation. Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-che asked directly: If these deceived Taiwanese people are not cornered, how could they possibly think of going to Cambodia to "pan for gold"?
In recent years, the DPP has also encouraged people to go to Southeast Asia to develop, and Tsai Ing-wen has vigorously promoted the "new southbound" policy, investing NT$25 billion in 4 years, declaring that "the results are good", but in fact, it is impossible to establish direct communication channels with most Southeast Asian countries. The constant glorification of the "new southbound" has given criminals an opportunity to take advantage of. It is absurd and ironic that Taiwanese with a per capita GDP of more than $30,000 are looking for employment opportunities in Cambodia, which has a per capita GDP of less than $2,000.
In addition to the economic downturn, the excessively light sentences for fraud on the island of Taiwan have also long contributed to the rampant trend of fraud groups.
In addition, there are some ironic reasons for the lighter sentences of fraudsters in Taiwan, as early as 2015, there were up to 200,000 fraudsters on the island. But only 60,000 people were finally imprisoned, because the prison capacity was relatively small and could not hold so many fraudsters. Therefore, no matter where taiwan fraudsters are caught, as long as they are repatriated to Taiwan, they are often able to come out and "return to their old business" because of their short sentences and light sentences, and the cost of crime is very low.
Li Yutong: The crime of fraud in Taiwan society is very rampant, mainly because of the rampant politics of black money, the ineffective crackdown by the government, the light sentence, and the high rate of repeated crimes. Mainly gangster backgrounds such as the Heavenly Dao Alliance, the human snake group is formed by absorbing criminals who want to make money. Because the remuneration obtained by human trafficking far exceeds the operation of online gambling websites and loans, human trafficking is extremely attractive to gangster organizations that raise their own financial resources. In addition, these local gangsters of the Tiandao League have also colluded closely with some public opinion representatives of the Democratic Progressive Party, which has also led to repeated prohibitions and arrests of fraud cases in Taiwan.
Psychology, literature, and investigation professional teams create routine "scripts"
Online fraud opens the era of "customization" to predict your prejudgment
At the beginning of this year, the Cambodian "blood slave" incident attracted much attention, and on February 28, the Cambodian police informed the Chinese Embassy in Cambodia of the preliminary investigation results and issued a public announcement, determining that the so-called "blood slave" case was purely fabricated. However, this incident also brought Cambodia's largest seaport city, Westport, into the eyes of the Chinese people.
The Cambodian government originally wanted to build Westport into a "casino city" in Southeast Asia like Macau and Las Vegas, but under the double blessing of the gaming and special economic zone policies, it has attracted countless online gambling and fraud groups. In just three years, the population of Westport has surged by more than 300,000, of which more than 100,000 people have engaged in telecom network fraud.
Since 2017, there have been many vicious shootings, kidnappings, extortion and other cases in Cambodia due to telecommunications network fraud, and the modus operandi is extremely bad, which has made the local people panic. The Cambodian government also realized that the entry of these fraudulent groups could only bring false prosperity and harm the national economy.
Therefore, in August 2019, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen signed a "ban on gambling" to ban all online and offline gambling activities, and according to local media reports, the number of people fleeing reached 90,000 in the seven days after the ban was enacted.
Driven by huge profits and fueled by "grey policies" in many countries, Southeast Asian countries such as Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia, in addition to Cambodia, have also become the concentration of telecommunications fraud. According to data, as of 2020, one in three people in Southeast Asian countries has experienced telecommunications fraud.
Sichuan International Sister City Exchange Consultant Li Yutong, Director of Cambodia (Chengdu) Business Center:
Telecommunications fraud, online gambling and other cyber crimes have achieved the "industrialization" of the whole chain, and professional "black and ash industry" merchants provide services in all aspects of the upstream and downstream. Server construction, false identity information, victim information, money laundering and even fraud "scripts" are provided by professional "black and gray industry" businesses, specializing in the production of fraud "scripts" team, there is no shortage of psychology, literature, investigation background professionals, fabricating "routine loans", "pig killing plates", "impersonating public prosecutors law" and other criminal routines.
Li Yutong: The professional team penetrates into every subtle link of criminal activities, especially the study of psychology and speech, which can really be said to be "professional, dedicated, and conscientious", all kinds of situations are prepared, carefully laid out, and completely achieve "prejudgment of your prejudgment", it is difficult not to be deceived.
The barbaric development of the Internet has given fraudsters a place to "show their skills".
If you support domestic products, scammers can impersonate official fan groups to send benefits;
If you don't get vaccinated, the scammer starts to issue a limited vaccination eligibility;
Repeated epidemics, home online shopping, you can encounter "package infection, need you to cooperate with the destruction";
Responsible for business transactions in the workplace, and some people pretend to be leaders to defraud business funds;
Study digital currencies, there are people who forge trading platforms;
You have not refunded personal income tax, and the gang that operates the high tax refund internally can come to you...
And these are just the tip of the iceberg of the age of scam customization. They're updating iterations every second, and you never know when and how your scam script will approach you.
According to the statistics of China's Ministry of Public Security, in recent years, the public security organs have cracked down on more than 50 types of fraud, including "pig killing plate", online loan fraud, game fraud, single fraud, recruitment fraud, there is a feature: more than 90% of the domestic telecommunications fraud, website servers are overseas. To a certain extent, this has also brought difficulties in obtaining evidence, making it difficult to arrest, and difficult to recover stolen goods to the crackdown by public security organs.
However, with the deepening of transnational police cooperation and the continuous improvement of detection methods, the national border is no longer a barrier in front of the public security organs to combat telecommunications fraud. In recent years, the Chinese police have strengthened police law enforcement cooperation with relevant countries in Southeast Asia through the "Cloud Sword" operation and the "Great Wall" operation, destroyed a large number of overseas fraud dens, and arrested a large number of fraudsters across borders. It will become the norm for Chinese police to go abroad to crack down on telecommunications network fraud.
Moderator: Lu Chen
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Edit: Jia Qian