Cybercrime | Guangdong cracks down on major cross-country ‘Macau casino’ scam

Earlier this week, Guangdong police intercepted a cross-country Internet and telecommunication scam, the perpetrators of which claimed to work for two casinos in Macau, mainland media reported.
The police arrested 218 suspects, including 38 Cambodian nationals, and confirmed that the suspects were believed to have scammed victims for a total of RMB140 million.
More than 1,000 people from 11 different cities fell victim to the scam.
Since last March, the Foshan police had received frequent complaints from residents claiming to have been sent messages, which contained website URLs, from two casinos in Macau. The police confirmed that these casinos did not offer online services.
The criminals planned and executed their scam from scratch, including setting up websites, a Chinese-language messaging service and a phone call line for customer services. They also posted videos of scantily clad women acting as dealers. Once victims completed the registration on the fraudulent websites, fake customer service representatives would coax them into transferring money to a private account to acquire chips.
The criminals would then allow some victims to win a small amount of money while simultaneously preparing them for a larger loss, after which point they would cease communication with the victims.
The servers were reportedly located in Poipet, a boomtown near the Cambodia-Thailand border. The 11 perpetrators all hail from Fujian province. 18 provinces – including Jilin, Shandong, Shanxi, Anhui and Hunan – were all linked to the fraud. More than 1,000 police officers  joined the operation, 150 of which travelled to Cambodia to apprehend the criminals.