An illustration depicting love scams. - Khmer Times/Aim Valinda
PHNOM PEMH (Khmer Times): The Cambodian Interior Ministry has voiced concerns that young, impressionable Cambodian women are falling prey to online love scams which leave them with emotional and financial sufferings.
Many of the victims are from underprivileged backgrounds who jump at the opportunity to get married to foreign-based suitors.
An investigation by Khmer Times revealed that these women are lured by online posts by scammers pretending to be lonely men based abroad who seek Cambodian women as partners.
The perpetrators begin an online relationship which becomes increasingly romantic culminating in intentions of marriage. Promises of lucrative gifts add to the allure.
Khmer Times conducted interviews with some victims of these scam operations, who recounted their painful experiences and the mental and financial hardships they faced afterward.
One of them, who preferred to be called Sreyrath, shared her story of how she fell for the scam, which has left her grappling with financial difficulties years later.
“I was added on Facebook back in 2020 (during the COVID-19 pandemic); it was a foreign-profile account,” she said. “Later on, I continued to receive messages from him, and after a while he asked me to be his long-distance girlfriend as he claimed he was still living in Saudi Arabia.”
That was where the so-called love story began, where Sreyrath started to place more trust in the man whom she had never even met in person yet.
“His conversations were so sweet; he seemed to be the perfect guy every girl dreams about. We barely knew each other enough, but he already started to talk about future plans with me. Who wouldn’t fall for this kind of sweetness?” she said.
Sreyrath said that after about six months of dating her online boyfriend, he began to discuss his family’s wealth, aiming to attract her attention and build a sense of trust.
“He told me his family was rich, but unfortunately he lost his parents recently (back in 2020) to a horrible car accident,” she said. “I comforted him and was surprised when he said he would love to send me some of his inheritance for me to start a small business which I have always dreamed of doing.”
“That was the beginning of the worst part of my life,” she added. “He began to ask me about my personal information, including my phone number, full real name, and address, so that he could send me the money and gifts.”
Sreyrath said that she was shown photos of a lot of designer bags and expensive jewellery, alongside a bunch of cash. “He promised to send me all these and said he would come to see me afterwards and start a family together.”
She said everything seemed so genuine and she did not realise then that it was a scam.
“I couldn’t tell that it was a scam because I was even sent details of shipping code and the cargo company he claimed to be using.
“A few days later when the gifts should have arrived, I received a call from someone using a Cambodian number who claimed to be one of the company’s shipping staff based at the Phnom Penh International Airport,” she added.
“I was a bit surprised when the lady told me that I had to pay a shipping fee of $700 in order to get the box. She claimed that the box was full of high-priced items and I needed to pay the fee in order to receive it.”
Sreyrath was left in a dilemma, which was heightened by pressure from her “boyfriend” who told her to pay up so that the valuable gifts would not be forfeited.
“I had no choice but to pay them the $700, but I was only given a few days to do so,” she said. “I had no money; I collected all my savings and had to borrow about another $200 from my mother so that I could pay for it.”
However, that was not the only amount of cash Sreyrath had to fork out. The “company representative” then asked her for another $400, claiming the items had some international shipping issues.
“Since I didn’t have any money left, I was left with no choice but to take the loan from a lady in my village to pay the $400; I was charged with a real high interest rate of 20% per month,” Sreyrath noted.
Even then, she did not receive any box at all. She then found that the number which the “company representative” use was no longer reachable. That’s when she suspected that she was being scammed.
“I tried calling them for days, but I could not reach out to them at all. I was also blocked on Facebook by my “boyfriend,” she said.
“It was the most difficult time I have ever encountered in my entire life as a then 18-year-old,” she said. “I was devastated and couldn’t stop blaming myself for being so dumb by not being able to tell that it was a scam operation all along. I had to repay the debt I took for years and because as I was not able to pay the interest regularly, it kept going up.”
Pon Leakena, another victim, shared a very similar story, where she lost about $1,500 to a love scam. “I made friends with a man online and he offered to send me a valuable gift, shortly after we agreed to date online.”
“He told me he was living in the US and that he would really love to marry an Asian woman, who he claimed could be me,” Leakena added. “I want all women, especially the young ones, to be extra cautious about such online dating platforms.”
Leakena said the she too was scammed of money but fortunately had money and did not have to take a loan.
“I used hard-earned money my mother made from her convenience store. I am still regretting having fallen for the scam.”
According to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in online love or romance scams, a criminal uses a fake online identity to gain a victim’s affection and trust. The scammer then uses the illusion of a romantic or close relationship to manipulate and/or steal from the victim.
Touch Sokhak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said that efforts to tackle such scams as cases continue rise, are hampered because not many victims complain that they have been tricked.
“Both Cambodian and foreign nationals are falling for the romance scams, but I believe that not many Cambodian victims want to seek intervention from the police. Most of the time, they are too embarrassed to reveal they are victims. Unfortunately in many cases, they have no idea where or how to seek support,” said Sokhak.
He added that the ministry encourages victims to seek help so that the police know the scam is taking place, which can lead to the identification of the scammers and make sure they face the music.
“It can be helpful for the police to study the cases and seek possible solutions to prevent further cases in the future,” he said.
He added that these types of scams are taking place almost everywhere in the world, not only in Cambodia, especially amid the rapid growth of digital technology, making it so much easier for the scammers to operate.
“What we can do is to enhance the dissemination of information about the scam tactics; we want them (the victims) not to get too taken in by what they are offered from someone they don’t really know,” he said.
On the number of complaints the Ministry had received, Sokhak said that reports on such romance scams cannot be disclosed claiming that it may jeopardise crackdown operations.
The US 2023 State Department Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP report) highlighted that the phenomenon of online romance, cryptocurrency, and other scams dates back decades. - Khmer Times
