10 South Koreans arrested, two rescued in Cambodia scam crackdown

SEOUL – Ten South Koreans have been arrested in Cambodia for alleged involvement in cyberscams and two more rescued, Seoul’s top diplomat said on Oct 20, days after dozens accused of working in the vast fraud operation were repatriated.

The multibillion-dollar illicit industry has ballooned in Cambodia in recent years, with thousands involved, some willingly and others forced to work by the organised criminal groups, experts say.

At the weekend,

Cambodia sent home 64 South Korean nationals

who had been held for their alleged links to “pig butchering” scams – so-called for the method of building trust with victims over time before stealing funds.

On Oct 20, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun said that 10 more people were arrested and two individuals rescued.

They were detained on Oct 16 and will be repatriated this week, he said.

Seoul is also working to locate 80 South Korean nationals still unaccounted for in Cambodia, Mr Cho said.

About 550 South Koreans had been reported missing or held against their will after entering Cambodia since 2024, the Foreign Ministry said last week.

Seoul has estimated that around 1,000 South Koreans are among the 200,000 people working in scam operations in Cambodia.

Some have been forced under threat of violence to execute “pig butchering” or romance scams.

Those deported at the weekend were detained as soon as they boarded a chartered flight home and were escorted off the plane in handcuffs.

Seoul’s National Police Agency said on Oct 20 it was seeking arrest warrants for 59 of them.

The repatriated individuals have been implicated in various crimes linked to voice phishing, romance scams and so-called “no-show” fraud schemes, Mr Park Sung-joo, head of the National Office of Investigation, told reporters last week.

National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac has said the detained individuals included both “voluntary and involuntary participants”.

The high-profile repatriation follows a public outcry in the country over the

torture and killing of a South Korean college student in Cambodia

in 2025

, reportedly by a crime ring.

Last week, South Korean Foreign Ministry officials met Cambodia’s Prime Minister and local police to discuss issues including fake jobs and scam centres. AFP