Hundreds of people dragged away suitcases, computer monitors, pets and furniture as they fled a suspected Cambodian cyberfraud center, after the country’s most-wanted alleged scam kingpin was arrested and deported.
Boarding “tuk-tuks,” Lexus SUVs and tourist coaches, an exodus departed Amber Casino in the coastal city of Sihanoukville, one of the illicit trade’s most notorious hubs.
“Cambodia is in upheaval,” one man said. “Nowhere is safe to work anymore,” he said on Thursday.
Photo: AFP
Similar scenes played out at alleged scam compounds across Cambodia this week as the government said it was cracking down on the multibillion-dollar industry.
Residents said many of the people working inside the tightly secured buildings moved out several days before the arrival of authorities.
From hubs across Southeast Asia, scammers lure Internet users globally into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments.
Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, transnational crime groups have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal tens of billions annually from victims around the world.
Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, sometimes trafficked foreign nationals who have been trapped and forced to work under threat of violence.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalists visited several alleged Internet scam sites in Sihanoukville, in the wake of the high-profile arrest and extradition of internationally sanctioned accused scam boss Chen Zhi (陳志).
Few of those departing the casinos, hotels and other facilities were willing to speak with AFP, and none were willing to be identified due to concerns for their safety.
“Our Chinese company just told us to leave straight away,” one man said. “But we’ll be fine. There are plenty of other job offers.”
Studded with casinos and unfinished high-rises, the glitzy resort of Sihanoukville has become a cyberscam hotbed, where thousands of people involved in the black market are believed to operate cons from fortified compounds.
A 2025 Amnesty International report identified 22 scam locations in the coastal resort, out of a total of 53 in the country.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimates global losses to online scams reached up to US$37 billion in 2023, and that at least 100,000 people work in the industry in Cambodia alone.
However, the Cambodian government claims the lawless era has come to an end, with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet pledging on Facebook to “eliminate... all the problems related to the crime of cyber scams.”
Cambodia’s anti-scam commission said it has raided 118 scam locations and arrested about 5,000 people in the past six months.
China has stepped up its pursuit of the scam industry, sweeping up Chen and other key figures from across Southeast Asia to try them on its own soil.
However, while Cambodia said it is “cracking down,” there are suspicions over the timing.
A tuk-tuk driver in Sihanoukville said hundreds of Chinese people left one compound before police arrived.
“Looks like they were tipped off,” the driver said.
Mark Taylor, former head of an anti-trafficking non-governmental organization, said the pre-emptive shifting of scam center resources, including workers, equipment and managers, had been seen ahead of law enforcement sweeps.
It was “seemingly the product of collusion,” he added, in a strategy with “dual ends” of boosting the government’s anti-crime credentials while preserving the scam industry’s ability to survive and adapt.
AFP journalists saw several coachloads of Mandarin speakers leaving Sihanoukville on the main highway to Phnom Penh.
Multiple people said they did not know where they were going or what their plans were, but appeared anxious as they anticipated law enforcement closing in.
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