Nineteen Japanese have been detained in Cambodia for alleged involvement in phone scams in Japan, authorities in both countries said Friday.
Tokyo police obtained arrest warrants for the men Thursday and are planning to dispatch investigators to Cambodia as early as next week to transport them to Japan, investigative sources said.
Japan has been cracking down on organised crime groups based outside the country.
Police in the Southeast Asian country investigated a hotel in the southern province of Sihanoukville in January after the Japanese Embassy in Cambodia was tipped off about a potential scam group operating from the establishment, the sources said.
The men, aged in their 20s to 50s, are suspected of defrauding people of money by claiming their victims had overdue payments for websites with paid subscriptions.
The arrest warrant was issued in connection with a case in which a woman in her 60s living in Tokyo was defrauded of ¥250,000 (US$1,900) worth of BitCash electronic money in January, according to the sources.
The Cambodian police said they are preparing to deport the men back to Japan in the coming days.
The men are believed to have sent text messages purporting to be from Japanese mobile operator NTT Docomo Inc to cell phone numbers in Japan. They would then coerce the people who called back into sending electronic money by notifying them of what they claimed were outstanding payments for subscriptions.
Multiple cell phones, a manual outlining how to defraud people, and a list of names including those of victims were among the items found in hotel rooms that are believed to have been used as a de facto office, the sources said.
The 19 suspects all applied for tourist visas when entering Cambodia, local officials said. Some had entered the country two years ago, while others had been in the country for six months.
Similarly, Japanese police recently transported suspects from the Philippines and arrested them on suspicion of theft in connection with scam cases targeting elderly people in Japan. Those arrested were also suspected of coordinating a string of robberies across the country.
