Many Indian women trafficked to Cambodia are ensnared in a disturbing web of exploitation orchestrated by Chinese scammers. Their harrowing plight involves honey-trapping unsuspecting people back home by making nude calls. The criminal enterprise was recently exposed by Munshi Prakash, a Telangana resident who fell victim to these fraudulent activities. Prakash, a BTech graduate in civil engineering, had been working with an IT firm in Hyderabad. Seeking employment abroad, he posted his profile on job sites. The trap was set when “Vijay,” an agent in Cambodia, contacted him, promising a job in Australia. To secure this opportunity, Prakash was instructed to obtain travel history by traveling to Malaysia. However, upon arriving in Phnom Penh, he was seized by Chinese nationals and taken to Krong Bavet—a large compound with towers.
In this grim environment, Prakash and other Indian victims were subjected to ten days of training. Their task was to create and use fake social media profiles of girls, primarily in Telugu and other languages. When Prakash fell ill, he managed to record a video detailing his traumatic experiences and sent it to his sister in Tamil Nadu. This desperate plea prompted the Indian embassy, along with the governments of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, to intervene and rescue him.
Prakash’s ordeal didn’t end there. Although Cambodian police initially rescued him from traffickers, he was later arrested on a fabricated charge orchestrated by the Chinese gang. After 12 days in jail, authorities discovered the charge was false, and Prakash was deported to Delhi. Nine others were rescued alongside him. Tragically, approximately 3,000 Indians—many from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana—remain trapped in Cambodia. Among them are girls coerced into making nude calls from detention camps. Victims hail from various Indian states, including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Mumbai, and Delhi. The gang profits from these cyber slaves by converting their earnings into cryptocurrency, then U.S. dollars, and finally Chinese Yuan.