NEW DELHI, Jan 8: Amid concerns over the rising trend of cybercriminals functioning from cyber slavery farms operational in Indochina countries, officials of India and Cambodia held a meeting on “areas of future cooperation and mutual interest” on the issue.
A delegation of Indian officials led by Rajesh Kumar, the chief executive officer of the country’s premier anti-cybercrime agency I4C, met Cambodia’s Chief of the Commission for Combating Online Scam (CCOS) and senior minister Santibindit Chhay Sinarith in that country on Tuesday, officials said.
“The meeting was presided over by the Senior Minister and Ambassador Vanlalvawna Bawitlung, where both sides discussed topics of mutual interest and areas of future cooperation, the Indian Embassy in Phnom Penh posted on X.
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The Indian delegation also met Major General Sok Nitya, the director of the Anti-Cyber Crime Department under the Cambodian Ministry of Interior, it said.
The Union government has noted instances of dubious firms luring Indians, mostly through social media, with fake job offers to Southeast Asian countries, including Cambodia, Myanmar, and Lao PDR, and forcing them to get involved in cybercrime and other fraudulent activities from scam centres operating there.
According to government data, more than 2,265 Indians, including software engineers, who were held in the cyber slavery farms operating from Cambodia, were rescued till December 2025.
The exact number of Indians stuck in Cambodia is not known, as they often reach these scam centres in the country on their own volition through fraudulent and unscrupulous recruitment agents and agencies, and through illegal channels, the government informed Parliament in December last year.
They approach the government or any other authority for rescue when they realise that they are trapped, it had said.
The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, also known as I4C, is a specialised office under the Ministry of Home Affairs that addresses all types of cybercrime in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.
It also keeps an eye on illegal agents and dubious firms luring youths with false recruitment offers, which are shared with it through the External Affairs Ministry, other agencies, and state governments. (PTI)
