Pictured repatriated cyberscam suspects all South Korean, say police

Published on March 27, 2026 at 09:55
2 min read
By Hawon Jung, AFP South Korea

After South Korean nationals detained in Cambodia over alleged involvement in cyberscam operations were repatriated in October 2025, photos of some of those who returned home were shared in posts falsely claiming they were in fact Chinese citizens. The photos were taken from a Cambodian news outlet's report about 33 South Koreans being detained during a raid on a scam ring compound, and the police superintendent who investigated their alleged crimes told AFP that none of them were Chinese nationals.

"Koreans rescued in Cambodia actually Chinese?" reads the Korean-language title of a DC Inside forum post shared on March 19, 2026.

The post includes four images taken from an Instagram post.

One shows various passports laid out on a table, while the other three depict groups of men and women, most of them handcuffed, standing or seated against a wall.

"The perpetrators who thanked the Democratic Party for saving them are all naturalised 'Joseonjok (ethnic Koreans with Chinese nationality)'. Did they go to Cambodia to save the Chinese? Hahahahaha," the DC Inside post says.

Screenshot of the false post captured on March 26, 2026 with a red X added by AFP

The images have circulated since October 2025 in similar Facebook , Threads, and X posts pandering to long-standing anti-Chinese sentiment in South Korea's far-right online communities.

Ethnically Korean Chinese nationals -- who can work and live in South Korea under a special visa arrangement -- have also faced derogatory claims they are Chinese spies or criminals in such forums.

The claim spread following a public outcry in the country over the torture and killing of a Korean college student in Cambodia. The student, reportedly kidnapped and tortured by a crime ring, was found dead in August 2025.

AFP reported at the time that South Koreans detained in Cambodia for alleged involvement in cyberscam operations were returned home and taken into custody as criminal suspects upon arrival to be transferred to police stations with jurisdiction over their respective cases (archived link).

None of the individuals shown in the circulating photos, however, are Chinese nationals, as the posts claim.

A reverse image search on Google found the photos had been used in reports published by The Cambodia China Times in September and October 2025. The photos also all bear the Phnom Penh-based Chinese-language newspaper's watermark.

The photo of the suspects' passports was used in an October 15, 2025 report by The Cambodia China Times about Cambodia's crackdown on fraud crimes (archived link).

The photos of the handcuffed suspects standing or seated against a wall was used in a September 15, 2025 report about a police raid on a scam ring compound in Phnom Penh, which led to the arrest of 48 suspected scammers -- 33 South Koreans, 13 Cambodians, as well as one Nepalese and one Bangladeshi (archived link).

Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police Superintendent Kim Jong-wook said these 33 South Koreans were repatriated a month later and investigated by his team for their involvement in scam crimes.

"All of them are South Korean nationals. None of them are Chinese," he told AFP on March 20.

Kim added that Chinese scam suspects arrested in Cambodia by the local authorities were "repatriated to China, of course".

The police probe -- which included personal background checks on suspects -- found that all of the individuals were Korean-born nationals, Kim said, rejecting claims that they were naturalised citizens.

Moreover, the individuals' passports -- shown in one of the falsely shared images -- all match the design of South Korean passports (archived link).

AFP has previously debunked several false claims circulating in South Korea of purported Chinese infiltration.

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail