Recently, many people from all over the provinces and cities, including Ho Chi Minh City, have been lured and enticed to go to Cambodia to do light work with high salaries. However, these people are then sold back to facilities to be detained, forced into hard labor or to do work related to online fraud activities.

If the victim wants to return, they must contact their family to transfer a large ransom. If the family or relatives do not have the money, the victim will be beaten and sold to other “companies” to commit illegal acts.

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These two girls were recently arrested by Ho Chi Minh City Police for human trafficking to Cambodia. Each person was brought and sold to companies and they received 300 USD. Photo: Provided by the Police

According to statistics from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Foreign Affairs, by the end of November 2024, the agency had received 199 requests for assistance in rescuing Vietnamese citizens abroad from authorities, including 43 cases with Ho Chi Minh City household registration.

Specifically, on December 11-12, 2024, Vietnamese authorities received 410 people detained by Cambodia for illegal entry and wrong purposes. Accordingly, when inspecting the Venus area, Cambodian authorities discovered that these people were working for companies and fraud centers led by Chinese people.

Recently, in early January 2025, Ho Chi Minh City Police informed that they had prosecuted 4 cases, with 22 defendants for the crime of "human trafficking".

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Ho Chi Minh City police prosecuted and arrested a subject in a human trafficking ring to Cambodia. Photo: Provided by the police

The above cases were investigated by Ho Chi Minh City Police Department from victims handed over by Cambodia due to illegal entry, illegal labor, etc. From there, the Investigation Police Agency has arrested the subjects who lured others with the trick of "easy work, high salary" or took advantage of the victims' debt and inability to pay; the subjects also beat, threatened, and forced the victims to illegally leave the country to Cambodia and "sell" them to agents. These subjects profited about 300 USD when successfully selling a person to Cambodia.

Victims are forced to work in disguised casinos, companies operating online fraud...

Methods and prevention

Ho Chi Minh City police identified the methods and tricks of human traffickers under the guise of luring them into easy jobs with high salaries.

They use social networks to post advertisements, recruit workers, or approach and entice Vietnamese citizens who want to go abroad to find work with attractive salaries and bonuses of up to thousands of dollars a month.

The work is described as easy, requiring no skills or qualifications, with a commitment to “easy work, high salary” including casinos. When the victims “fall into the trap”, the subjects will organize for these people to illegally exit the country, mainly to Cambodia in the Moc Bai border gate area (Tay Ninh province).

Victims are held captive in companies and forced to commit online fraud using all sorts of tricks. If the victims resist, they are locked up, starved, and beaten.

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Police work with victims of human trafficking to Cambodia. Photo: Provided by the police

If the victim wants to return to Vietnam, the subjects require them to contact their families to pay a ransom of up to hundreds of millions of dong. When the family transfers the money, they do not release the victim but sell the victim to other fraudulent companies to continue making illegal profits.

From the activities to clarify the above tricks, Ho Chi Minh City Police made recommendations.

For people who need to find jobs or export labor abroad, they need to carefully research information and contact legal and reputable job referral centers for specific instructions to avoid falling into the trap of scammers. When looking for jobs online, people need to be wary of websites that show signs of fraud.

For the victims' families: if you receive a phone call asking for money to ransom your loved one back to the country, you need to calmly find out when your loved one left the country, via what route, who lured them, which "center" they are currently in... then report to the local police for timely support.

For local agencies, departments and organizations: it is necessary to strengthen propaganda work in many forms to raise people's awareness; at the same time, approach and support poor households, those in difficult circumstances, those who need to go abroad to find work to provide information, introduce reputable job placement and labor support centers in the locality.

Particularly, Ho Chi Minh City Police will promptly reward collectives and individuals with outstanding achievements in the movement of the whole people to protect national security, actively provide valuable information to help the police investigate, discover and handle fraudsters; all cases of covering up, harboring, and failing to report crimes, if discovered, will be handled according to the provisions of law, depending on the nature and severity.

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Ho Chi Minh City police recommend that people be vigilant against offers of “easy work, high salary” to protect themselves and avoid becoming victims of criminal groups.