More than 130 foreigners arrested in Sri Lanka for online fraud

The police operation is part of a wider crackdown on cross-border online fraud networks in the island nation.

On Saturday, police arrested 37 Chinese nationals during a raid in Talangama, a suburb of Colombo.

Police said one of them was a woman, two did not have valid visas and one did not have a passport.

They are all aged between 24 and 44 years old.

In another raid on Sunday, more than 100 people were arrested in Rajagiriya, another Colombo suburb.

Those arrested in the second raid were from various countries, including China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Madagascar, the Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia.

Police said they were operating in a rented apartment.

Those arrested in the raid have been booked under Sri Lanka’s Computer Crime Act, the country’s main law against cybercrime, hacking and data misuse.

Police said there had been a series of similar arrests in recent months.

In April, police arrested about 150 foreigners, most of them Chinese, on suspicion of conducting online financial fraud in the city of Chilaw.

Several such groups have been dismantled over the past year.

Officials say these organizations are often part of broader international criminal groups that use digital platforms and communications systems to target victims abroad.

Law enforcement agencies have often said Sri Lanka’s connectivity and visa access could make it vulnerable to such activity, and some suspects have been accused of entering the country on short-term permits.

This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.