Taiwanese livestreamer fakes abduction at Cambodian scam mill, facing punishment

An influencer who dominated headlines back home in Taiwan after live-streaming his alleged escape from abduction in a Cambodian scam mill has been arrested for staging the hoax.

Chen Neng-chuan, well known for his paranormal videos made in Taiwan and elsewhere, had teased on Instagram prior to his arrival in Cambodia that he will be exploring "the world's darkest corner" where "many Taiwanese have been cheated and enslaved".

But on the night of Feb 12, fans were shocked when the content producer turned on his live stream and appeared to have been beaten up. The video was then cut off abruptly by a person wearing fatigue pants, Taiwan's United Daily News reported.

The next day, his tearful wife went online to say her husband had gone missing. She and another content producer said Chen had insisted on travelling to Cambodia alone for his shoot despite their objection.

In the same afternoon, Chen — who also goes by the moniker Goodnight Chicken — returned to the live stream, looking petrified, with part of his head shaven and his dusty clothing torn.

He claimed to have made a dramatic escape from his armed abductors in Sihanoukville, a city with a reputation for syndicates that deceptively lure foreigners to carry out scam operations worldwide.

Chen said his captors had tied him to a chair inside a building, as he was trying to sneak into a scam mill.

But sceptics soon began to poke holes in the story.

Internet celebrity Liu Yu managed to pinpoint Chen's location on Google Maps using scenes in Chen's video, and found that Chen appeared to have circled an area by the road instead of running away as he claimed.

Chen could have approached any of the resorts he passed by for help but did not, Liu said.

Liu also posted on Facebook an image of Chen before the alleged abduction in a vehicle with a piece of fatigue clothing — similar to the one worn by one of Chen's alleged abductors — kept in the backseat.

He also questioned Chen's claim that his abductors took away the thousands of US dollars he had on him, but not his camera equipment for live-streaming.

Taiwanese police said Chen's family did not file a police report, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it did not receive any request for help.

Cambodian police on Feb 15 paraded to the media Chen and his alleged accomplice, a Taiwanese YouTuber who goes by the name Anow, whom they have arrested for staging the abduction.

Preah Sihanouk governor Kuoch Chamroeun told reporters Chen and his crew arrived in Phnom Penh on Feb 11 to live-stream fake haunted buildings but could not settle on the perfect location, The Cambodia China Times reported.

They then headed for Sihanoukville to shoot Chen's bogus infiltration of scam factories.

While in Cambodia, the crew bought props, such as military outfits, fake guns and fake blood.

Kuoch Chamroeun said the duo will be tried in court and deported after they serve out their sentences.

In the recorded press conference, Chen and Anow went down on their knees to plead for leniency, but the governor later said what they did was a serious matter that cannot be resolved with simply a slap on the wrist.

"If we forgive them, there will be more who will come up with similar falsehoods to smear the image of Cambodia," said Kuoch Chamroeun.

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.