A joint investigation team of the Republic of Korea (RoK) has nabbed 26 people over scam crimes involving sexual exploitation in Phnom Penh, Cambodia through cooperation with the local authorities, Yonhap News agency has reported.

According to spokesperson of the presidential palace Kang Yu-jung, the suspects impersonated government agencies, including prosecutors and financial authorities, deceiving victims into believing they were implicated in crimes and extorting 26.7 billion KRW (18.2 million USD) from 165 Korean nationals under the pretext of investigating their assets, Kang said.

She stressed that this case illustrates how scam crimes have evolved beyond simply stealing money from ordinary people, instead relentlessly exploiting victims' psychological vulnerabilities and coercing them into producing sexual exploitation material — a method that utterly devastates the victims' lives.

The raid on the group’s offices and residences took place on January 5, coordinated by RoK police, the National Intelligence Service (NIS), and Cambodian police.

Task force officials said the crime ring involves Koreans, adding they will verify the suspects' nationalities upon their repatriation.

The Korean government will immediately block the circulation of the sexually exploitative videos and bring the suspects back to the RoK to face punishment, Kang said.

The latest roundup comes as the RoK has been ramping up efforts to combat crimes targeting its nationals in Cambodia, such as online scams, following the torture and death of a Korean college student lured to a scam centre in the Southeast Asian country in August last year./.