19 Japanese phone scam suspects deported from Cambodia amid crackdown
- Police raided a hotel and arrested the men in January after the Japanese Embassy was tipped off – dozens of mobile phones, laptops and documents were seized
- The gang may have repeatedly sought to defraud people by tricking them into thinking they had overdue payments for paid subscription websites in Japan
Cambodian authorities deported 19 Japanese suspects back to their home country over their alleged involvement in phone scams, as Japanese police continue cracking down on crime groups based in Southeast Asian countries.
The men, who had been using a resort hotel in southern Cambodia as their base, were arrested aboard a chartered flight to Japan, according to Tokyo police. The plane arrived at Haneda airport in the capital later in the day.
The men are suspected of defrauding a woman in her 60s, living in Tokyo, of 250,000 yen (US$1,870) worth of BitCash electronic money in January. They are aged between 25 and 55, with one of the suspects thought to be a member of an organised crime group, investigative sources said.
They may have repeatedly sought to defraud people of their money by tricking victims into thinking they had overdue payments for paid subscription websites in Japan.
Cambodian police raided a hotel and arrested the men in late January in the southern coastal province of Sihanoukville after the Japanese Embassy in Cambodia was tipped off that they were operating from the location, the sources said, adding that dozens of mobile phones, laptops and documents used to conduct the scams were seized.