Eight Taiwanese nationals were arrested on Saturday in Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district, where they were allegedly using voice over internet protocol (VoIP) technology to defraud victims in China.

Ministry of Interior immigration department chief investigator Uk Hai Sela said the seven men and one woman arrested in Tuol Sangke commune were being held at the General Department of Immigration.

“They stayed in Cambodia and threatened people in China for money,” he said.

Another 27 Taiwanese and Chinese nationals were arrested on June 13, Hai Sela said. That group was arrested in a flat in Sen Sok district’s Thmey commune, where police found telephones and equipment for making VoIP calls.

Hai Sela said all were scheduled to be deported this week.

A Phnom Penh International Airport official, who asked not to be named because he wasn’t authorised to speak to the press, confirmed that four Taiwanese were also arrested at the airport on Saturday for allegedly being involved in a similar kind of fraud. In March, 118 Chinese nationals were arrested across Cambodia for VoIP fraud.