Tuesday, October 21, 2025 - Ten South Koreans have been arrested in Cambodia for their alleged involvement in cyberscam operations, while two others were rescued, South Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said on Monday, October 20.
The arrests came just days after Cambodia repatriated 64
South Koreans accused of participating in large-scale online fraud schemes
known as “pig butchering,” where scammers build trust with victims before
stealing their money.
Cho said the ten suspects were detained last Thursday and
would be repatriated this week. He added that efforts were ongoing to locate
about 80 South Korean nationals still unaccounted for in Cambodia. According to
Seoul’s foreign ministry, around 550 South Koreans have been reported missing
or held against their will since last year after traveling to Cambodia.
Authorities estimate that roughly 1,000 South Koreans are
among some 200,000 people working in the country’s scam networks, many of them
forced into the operations under threats of violence. Over the weekend, the 64
deported individuals were immediately detained upon arrival in South Korea and
escorted off their flight in handcuffs.
The National Police Agency said it was seeking arrest
warrants for 59 of those repatriated, while Park Sung-joo, head of the National
Office of Investigation, confirmed that the suspects were linked to crimes
including voice phishing, romance scams, and “no-show” fraud schemes. National
Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac said the deportees included both “voluntary and
involuntary participants.”
The crackdown follows outrage over the death of a South
Korean college student in Cambodia earlier this year, allegedly murdered by
members of a scam ring. South Korean officials have since met with Cambodia’s
prime minister and local police to address the rise of fake job offers and
criminal cyberfraud centres in the region.
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