LOPBURI, THAILAND – A 35-year-old Thai woman told police she had been lured to Cambodia by a job offer, detained and forced to work for an online scam syndicate.
Testimony at technology crime centre
The woman, identified in documents as Ms. Aim, 35, from Khon Kaen province, appeared at the Technology Crime Reporting Centre of the Lopburi Provincial Police on 10 January 2026 at 6:22 p.m. Her statement was recorded by Pol Col Prawit Yongyuth, head of the investigation unit, and police said the information would be used in ongoing investigations into cross-border technology crime.
“I thought it was just a normal job, but then there was no way back,”
said Ms. Aim, according to her report.
Lured by alleged product-scanning job
According to her account, she had been contacted with a job offer in Cambodia for work in product scanning, with a promised salary of 18,000 baht per month. Before taking up the job, she was told to open two bank accounts, supposedly to receive her wages, accounts of the kind frequently misused by fraud networks in the region for money transfers. She was then picked up by car and taken to a resort in Aranyaprathet district in Sa Kaeo province near the Cambodian border, where several other people were already waiting to continue the journey.
Shots fired during illegal border crossing
From Aranyaprathet, the group crossed the border via an unofficial route. According to Ms. Aim, Cambodian soldiers opened fire during the crossing. The guide leading the group fled, while she and four other people were arrested and handed over to the Cambodian police, and
“I was sure they would send us back to Thailand, but that did not happen,”
she said.
Transfer to criminal group near the border
Instead, they were turned over to a criminal group operating near the border. While in the control of this group, she and other Thai nationals were held without pay as the perpetrators ran a computer-based fraud operation. After a nearby building used by the organisation was attacked, the gang removed computers and moved the group to a new site in Poipet, a border town on the Cambodian side.
Forced to support large money transfers
At the second location, she said she was subjected to facial recognition procedures to open additional bank accounts and assist with money transfers. According to her testimony, large sums of money flowed through the system every day, including currency conversions, and she said that financial transfers of up to 500 million baht triggered internal warning alerts. People who refused to cooperate were beaten, she reported, and
“Some who resisted, I never saw again later,”
she said.
Release, escape and Thai investigation
She said she was eventually released after her bank accounts were frozen, making her useless to the perpetrators, who dropped her near a sugarcane field. From there, she walked to the Thai border, where she encountered Thai soldiers. Her account was first reported by Khaosod, and Lopburi police said her information would now feed into ongoing investigations against cross-border scam networks.