A CAMBODIAN government crackdown on criminal cybercrime operations has resulted in the arrest of more than 1,000 suspects this week.

“The government has observed that online scams are currently causing threats and insecurity in the world and the region,” Prime Minister Hun Manet said on Tuesday. “In Cambodia, foreign criminal groups have also infiltrated to engage in online scams.”

The United Nations and other agencies estimate that cyber scams, most of them originating in south-east Asia, earn billions of dollars a year for international criminal gangs.

More than 1,000 suspects were arrested in raids in at least five provinces between Monday and Wednesday, according to statements from Information Minister Neth Pheaktra and police.

Those detained included more than 200 Vietnamese, 27 mainland Chinese and 75 suspects from Taiwan, plus 85 Cambodians in the capital Phnom Penh and the southern city of Sihanoukville. 

At least 270 Indonesians, including 45 women, were arrested on Wednesday in Poipet, a town on the border with Thailand notorious for cyber scam and gambling operations, the minister said. 

Elsewhere, police in the north-eastern province of Kratie arrested 312 people, including nationals of Thailand, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam, while 27 people from Vietnam, China and Myanmar were arrested in the western province of Pursat.