Twenty-five Japanese nationals detained in September in Cambodia for allegedly running a phone scam operation out of a Phnom Penh apartment will soon be extradited to Japan for arrest, according to investigative sources.
Cambodian investigative sources say that mobile phones seized by local authorities after they raided an apartment in Phnom Penh used as a base by over 20 Japanese nationals for alleged fraud were destroyed before the raid.
A record 2,322 scams in Japan to steal internet banking IDs and passwords have resulted in unauthorized money transfers totaling a record of around 3 billion yen ($21 million) in the first half of this year, a report by the National Police Agency shows
A suspected senior member of a group that orchestrated scams across Japan from the Philippines was served a fresh arrest warrant on June 29 for allegedly ordering a robbery in Kyoto under the pseudonym "Luffy."