“I applied on Facebook for a job as a customer manager in a casino in Sihanoukville. Arriving at the airport, a car took me in front of a large six-story building surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by armed men. Inside, there were bars on every window. There, my passport was confiscated. I understood that I had been trapped”says Nattapong, a 32-year-old Thai survivor. For more than two years, he went through hell in an online scam center (scam center) of this coastal town nicknamed “the city of sin”. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, nearly 100,000 people will suffer the same fate.
In a report published last June, Amnesty International identified 53 scam centers. Every time, “reinforced fences impenetrable to anyone other than the criminal syndicates who run them”. Beatings, electric shocks, prolonged isolation: reduced to slavery, these victims from Asia, Africa or the West, lured by false job offers, are forced to scam Internet users on five continents from these “fraud factories”.
Fertile ground
These centers are often camouflaged as special economic zones (SEZs), hotel complexes or casinos – left vacant after Cambodia banned online gaming in 2019 and then Covid. Since 2022, their number has exploded. The capital, Phnom Penh, and former “paradises of gambling » Like Sihanoukville, Poipet and Bavet are now hubs for cyber fraud.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) confirms Cambodia’s pivotal role. The ground is fertile for cybercrime: endemic corruption, failing regulatory structures, limited technical and judicial capacities to fight against cybercrime. And for good reason, the country is not part of the international system for the automatic exchange of tax information (CRS). Enough to allow criminal networks to hide their funds and act with relative impunity.
Scams that pay off big
Flagship scam of these fraud centers: the pig butcheringliterally “the slaughter of the pig”. Victims are tricked into paying increasing amounts of money – often in cryptocurrencies – into fraudulent schemes. Cambodia alone absorbs three quarters of these scams globally. They caused victims to lose $75 billion between 2020 and 2024, including $53 billion in the United States alone. Then comes the romance scam : after having formed false relationships of seduction online, the scammers invent emergencies to extract money. In 2024, these frauds would have made it possible to extort more than 10 billion dollars from the Americans (+ 60% in one year) and 3 billion from the Thais (primary targets in Asia). And on fake online casinos (rigged platforms), players deposit funds without ever being able to recover any winnings, because the games are programmed to make them lose. In total, these scams bring in 12.5 billion dollars per year for Cambodia, according to the UNODC, or almost half of its GDP, and 40 billion for the whole of South-East Asia.
Behind this booming industry, the Chinese triads. The repression suffered by many gaming circles in China has led these mafia networks to relocate their misdemeanor and criminal activities there. “These networks have transformed Cambodia into the global epicenter of cybercrime”warns Jeremy Douglas, head of UNODC for Southeast Asia. Long active in heroin trafficking in the Golden Triangle, the triads have shifted to digital fraud and cryptocurrency laundering.
Niem Chheng, editor-in-chief of the daily The Phnom Penh Postgoes further: “The 14K, one of the most powerful, is waging turf wars in certain areas of Cambodia. Triads orchestrate a sophisticated, decentralized chain of command. Dodgy investors and itinerant criminals move between the Philippines, Cambodia and Burma to escape police repression. »
At the heart of this ecosystem is the Cambodian consortium Huione Guarantee. Based in Phnom Penh, it is used by the triads as a “digital crime supermarket” as it offers services: sale of stolen data, malware, laundering services and conversion of cryptos into cash. According to the American FinCEN, the financial crime repression network, Haowang, a branch of the Huione group, has more than 970,000 users and has processed $24 billion in cryptocurrency transactions since 2021 via its own blockchain and a stablecoin backed by the dollar to circumvent regulations.
A new combat commission
This prosperity is based on highly placed local complicity. Figures like Senator Ly Yong Phat (close advisor to the current Prime Minister and head of the LYP group) and tycoon Kok An (owner of several casinos) have been implicated for having covered or profited from these operations. Thai police are investigating transfers of tens of millions of dollars to the Huione group and suspect a nephew of former Prime Minister Hun Sen of having an interest. As for experts and NGOs, all denounce a complicit State which limits itself to one-off arrests without targeting those responsible.
In addition to its cooperation with China which was intensified with a bilateral agreement signed in September 2024 to jointly combat illegal gambling and online fraud, Cambodia created an interministerial commission to combat illegal gambling last February. scam centers. His mission? Coordinate police operations, close illegal centers, prosecute perpetrators and strengthen the law on the repression of cybercrime. “Cambodia will dismantle all scam networks wherever they hide”insisted Prime Minister Hun Manet (son of Hun Sen) who chairs the commission. Hence the arrest of more than 2,000 suspects last July during raids.
However, experts remain skeptical. Jacob Sims, Cambodia director for International Justice Mission, warns: “It will take more action to hold perpetrators accountable, and the task will become more complicated as criminal groups move their operations to more remote areas. » For the editor-in-chief of Phnom Penh Posteverything depends on the will of the government: “He could close these centers on condition of sanctioning police officers or civil servants who accept bribes from crooks. But there is limited commitment at the top and persistent corruption at the bottom. Scam centers could operate even if their locations are known, corrupting local law enforcement and politicians. » Undermined by corruption and the harmful influence of untouchable “barons”, Cambodia has a considerable challenge to overcome.
In the space of a few years, it has gone from online gaming paradise to hub world of digital scams. And its model is exported. The rise of these networks is not just a Cambodian problem. Through their massive use of digital technologies, artificial intelligence and deepfakesthey also threaten global digital security.
