Scam centers in Cambodia are clandestine fraud operations, controlled by international and organized criminal networks specializing in online fraud and operating in Cambodia. Policy analysis has characterized Cambodia as a global nexus and among the global epicenters of trafficking-linked transnational cyber-fraud, with scam networks recruiting coerced and voluntary workers from dozens of countries and targeting victims worldwide. The operations of organized crime in the country is a serious regional issue, and their activities are estimated to generate between $12.5 and $19 billion annually, a figure that could represent up to 35% of Cambodia's gross domestic product (GDP).
According to a 2024 United Nations (UN) report, an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 people, many of them foreign nationals deceived by fraudulent job offers, are believed to have been trafficked and held in Cambodian compounds where they are forced to engage in online scam operations under exploitative conditions. Across Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos, the cybercriminal labor force has been estimated to exceed 350,000 people, with conservative estimates placing annual revenue generated by regional scam syndicates at $50 to $75 billion.
Several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and eyewitness accounts report cases of human trafficking, forced labor, torture, child exploitation and other forms of abuse from Cambodian scam centers. While these centers operate de jure in violation of Cambodian law, they are reportedly based openly in casinos, hotels, office buildings, or residential areas, including in cities such as Sihanoukville and the country's capital of Phnom Penh. According to various international reporting bodies, they appear to benefit from a degree of impunity, or even complicity, from various Cambodian officials.
History Legacy of corruption Cambodia under Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) has remained plagued by systemic and deeply entrenched corruption, which persisted even after the formal establishment of a democratic framework. In 2024, Cambodia ranked among the 25 most corrupt countries in the world, placing 22nd on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.
Hun Sen's rise to power in 1988—and subsequently of his son Hun Manet in 2023—was characterized by the consolidation of executive power, the centralization of economic resources among political elites, and the cultivation of close ties between senior government officials and criminal syndicates operating across Southeast Asia, particularly in the spheres of gambling, casino operations, and human trafficking. The United States Department of State has repeatedly denounced the Cambodian government's complicity with these networks, alleging that officials have shielded and financially profited from their activities.
This environment of corruption and political patronage has created fertile ground for the expansion of transnational criminal networks, including Chinese triads that have fled increased crackdowns in China since 2018. Many of these groups have established operations in special economic zones such as Sihanoukville, where lax regulation and political protection have enabled them to thrive.
Coercive patronage networks and a criminalized political economy A 2025 policy report by Humanity Research Consultancy, based on interviews with dozens of scholars, diplomats, journalists, and civil society actors, described entrenched corruption as the most consistently cited enabling factor behind Cambodia's trafficking-linked online-scam industry. The report also identified reliable protection by government actors and co-perpetration by party elites as primary enablers of Cambodia's trafficking–cybercrime nexus and as major barriers to countermeasures. The report argued that corruption in this context is not limited to sporadic bribery, but is closely tied to patronage relationships between political elites and business interests, alongside the use of state coercive capacity to discourage challenges to the ruling order and protect high-rent economic activity.
The report also framed the rise of large-scale cyber-fraud in Cambodia as an adaptation of earlier rent-generating illicit and semi-illicit practices associated with politically connected networks. It described these networks as having shifted over time across revenue sources—including resource extraction and concession-linked business activity—before expanding into casino-linked development and, later, scam-compound operations that rely on trafficked labor.
Analyses of Cambodia's scam-compound economy have described a pattern in which foreign-led fraud networks operate through locally influential business patrons who control the land and buildings used for compounds. In these accounts, local patrons monetise real-estate holdings by providing premises, security, and politically mediated protection that can reduce the likelihood of sustained law-enforcement disruption, while foreign operators supply capital, management, and overseas targeting; senior investors and coordinators have been described as predominantly foreign, particularly from mainland China.
Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic
Historically concentrated in the casino sector, criminal networks operating in Cambodia were severely impacted by the 2019 adoption of a law tightening gambling regulations—specifically banning online gambling—and the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to a sharp decline in tourism, especially from China. Faced with economic losses, crime organizations involved in the Cambodian casino industry began collaborating with long-standing human trafficking networks in the country and gradually shifted their operations to online scams and the exploitation of forced labor. Following Cambodia's 2019 ban on online gambling, casino and hotel revenues in casino towns declined and scam operations expanded as an alternative revenue stream. During the COVID-19 pandemic, travel restrictions and the departure of many voluntary scam workers were associated with increased reliance on trafficked foreign nationals to staff scam compounds, including in repurposed casino- and hotel-linked facilities.
From 2021, several Cambodian establishments previously linked to online gambling—such as casinos and hotels (including some in major urban centers), were converted into online scam compounds. That same year, videos filmed inside some scam compounds showing employees subjected to physical abuse and torture were made public, drawing international media attention and concern. It's been argued that the pandemic-era shock to key sectors of Cambodia's economy increased the perceived value of rapid, high-liquidity revenue streams for elite patronage networks, and that this coincided with a period of political consolidation and succession politics in which access to capital was viewed as strategically important.
Crackdown from 2022 Early enforcement efforts from 2022 have been described as intermittent and some prominent scam-linked sites resumed activity after raids, alongside an increasingly restrictive climate for local reporting and activism on the issue.
In 2022, several Cambodian police operations were conducted against scam compounds across the country. Further raids took place in Sihanoukville in 2024, resulting in the arrest of 450 individuals involved in online gambling and scam operations. These operations did not succeed in permanently dismantling these networks or ending ongoing allegations of government complicity and tolerance, which have been denounced by numerous NGOs and international institutions. Some local observers have alleged that certain raids were short-lived and sometimes focused on selected compounds or lower-level personnel, with operations resuming or shifting after police departed; allegations also included advance warning in some cases.
In June 2025, a report by Amnesty International brought renewed global media attention on Cambodian scam compounds. Following renewed international attention in mid-2025, Cambodian authorities significantly expanded enforcement actions against online scam operations. Beginning in July 2025, the government publicly began reporting nationwide raids targeting scam compounds, increased disclosure of arrest figures, and regular media briefings on enforcement outcomes. In July 2025, the Prime Minister announced a "task force" dedicated to combating online scam centers. According to policy analysis by Bower Group Asia, expanded enforcement actions between late 2024 and October 2025 resulted in the arrest or detention of more than 5,000 individuals and the shutdown of at least 93 suspected scam sites. Government reporting and news coverage corroborated significant increases in arrests; for example, state sources recorded nearly 3,455 suspects detained in raids on 92 compounds across 18 cities and provinces from June to mid‑October 2025. Cambodian officials described the crackdown on online scam networks as a transparent, coordinated campaign, highlighting nationwide raids, public reporting of arrests, and cooperation with foreign governments, including a joint task force agreement with South Korea and support pledged by Japan.
A major development in the intensified enforcement measures occurred in early January 2026 with the arrest and extradition of Chen Zhi, the founder and chairman of Prince Holding Group, a conglomerate accused by U.S., U.K., and other international authorities of operating one of Asia's largest transnational online scam and fraud networks. Cambodian authorities arrested Chen along with two other Chinese nationals and extradited them to mainland China after revoking his Cambodian citizenship. In coordination with Chen's extradition, Cambodia's central bank ordered the liquidation of Prince Bank, a lender founded by Chen's group and part of its financial services network, suspending its operations and appointing a liquidator to manage asset disposition and creditor claims.
Timeline of recent events Year Major developments 2023 April: Cambodian authorities deported 19 Japanese nationals who had been detained on suspicion of involvement in phone and online scam operations.
May: Southeast Asian leaders at the ASEAN summit pledged a regional crackdown on online scams and the human trafficking that supplies labour to scam operations, amid reports of jobseekers lured by offers in countries including Cambodia. June: Interpol issued a global warning on "human trafficking-fueled fraud", describing the use of trafficking victims in large-scale online scam operations based largely in Southeast Asia. August: A United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) policy brief on cyber fraud and trafficking for forced criminality described scam-compound operations in Southeast Asia, including extensive criminal operations in Cambodia using casino and special-economic-zone infrastructure and trafficked labour. August: The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a report on cyber scams and related trafficking/forced labor in Southeast Asia, estimating that about 100,000 people in Cambodia were held in scam operations.
November: Cambodia deported 25 Japanese nationals suspected of operating online scams after arrests in Phnom Penh.
December: Interpol reported on Operation Storm Makers II (carried out 16–20 October), in which participating countries conducted inspections at trafficking and migrant-smuggling hotspots linked to movements of victims to cyber scam centres; Interpol said the operation resulted in arrests, rescues, and new investigations. 2024 March: Cambodian authorities conducted raids in Sihanoukville, arresting more than 450 people allegedly linked to illegal online gambling and pig butchering scam operations.