COLOMBO: Sri Lankan authorities arrested 30 Chinese and Vietnamese nationals on Thursday in the latest crackdown on cyberscams, raising the number detained since the weekend to 261, police said. The latest arrests were made in Werahera, a suburb of the capital, police said, adding that 74 Vietnamese nationals arrested elsewhere in the capital on Wednesday were remanded in custody until May 14. Crime groups around the world have carried out online scams, defrauding victims of tens of billions of dollars annually, often through cryptocurrency fraud and fake romantic relationships. In Sri Lanka, authorities cracked down on two suspected cyberscam centers on Sunday, arresting a total of 157 people. “They had entered the country on tourist visas and were illegally employed, while some had overstayed their visas,” police spokesman Frederick Wootler said. A Colombo magistrate ordered a forensic examination of computers and mobile phones seized from the alleged scam center in Colombo’s Kollupitiya area, where the 74 Vietnamese nationals were arrested on Wednesday. The suspects were aged between 19 and 39, police said, adding that most had overstayed their visas. The arrests came a month after 152 foreign nationals, mostly Chinese, were detained for allegedly running a cyberscam operation from a hotel in the island’s northwest. Immigration authorities arrested 135 Chinese men and women in March for allegedly operating a similar scam. They have since been deported. Beijing’s embassy in Colombo said at the time that it was working closely with local authorities to prevent Chinese nationals from engaging in scam operations in Sri Lanka. The embassy said Sri Lanka’s telecommunications infrastructure, favorable geographical location and relatively lenient visa policies had encouraged fraud gangs to move to the South Asian nation. In 2024, Sri Lankan authorities detained 230 Chinese nationals and 200 Indians accused of operating cybercrime centers in various parts of the island.
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