Brazilian woman was arrested in Cambodia for refusing to carry out scams

Family claims to have been extorted after arrest. Daniela’s sister reports that criminals took the Brazilian’s cell phone and sent messages pretending to be her. The texts claimed the woman needed money to pay a fine to leave Cambodia or they would “sell” her. Lorena declared that the family lost R$27,000 in transfers. They don’t know who received the amounts.

The Brazilian woman seemed to be kept in prison in Cambodia, said her sister. Daniela arrived in the country on January 30, but spent the entire month of February in a closed complex, without working and with her passport withheld. It was only in March that it would have started its activities. According to her family, she only communicated via messages and, in rare calls with her mother, she spoke with her head down and for a short time, showing signs that she was being watched.

For her family, Daniela was framed after wanting to leave Cambodia. According to her sister, she wanted to leave the country as soon as she found out that she would have to scam people. The architect told her family that she thought this was wrong and commented that she had spoken to her bosses that she would like to return to Brazil. Soon after, however, she was arrested.

Daniela is being held in a prison in the city of Sisophon. The Brazilian woman shares a cell with 89 other women and the place does not have basic sanitation. Food and medicine must be paid for inside the penitentiary, according to the sister.

Family members believe she was a victim of human trafficking. The family did not say what types of scams the Brazilian woman was forced to commit, nor did they know the name of any of her bosses at the scene.

I think they tricked her. They take advantage of people who have been trying to get a job for a while and can’t find one. (…) She didn’t know that all this would happen if she left. They put her in a situation of a crime she didn’t commit, extorted our family and left her in an unhealthy prison.
Lorena, Daniela’s sister, to Facto News