Cambodia says it will shut all domestic scam compounds by the end of next month after arresting 13 South Koreans

Cambodia has said it will close all domestic crime compounds and scam workplaces by the end of next month, after a series of raids that led to arrests including 13 South Koreans. For payment companies, the key point is simple: the country’s scam economy is still being actively dismantled in public, but the enforcement picture remains uneven and politically sensitive.

1. Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith, who heads Cambodia’s anti-online fraud commission, said the government has focused crackdowns on about 250 scam workplaces since July last year and forced about 200 of them to close. He said the campaign will continue after next month to prevent scam workplaces from reemerging.
2. According to the Associated Press, the Cambodian government has also indicted 697 people suspected of being ringleaders or accomplices of scam rings. About 10,000 people from 23 countries who engaged in fraud in the organizations have been repatriated to their home countries, and the remaining number awaiting processing is said to be under 1,000.
3. Local outlets including the Khmer Times reported that police raided three dwellings in Phnom Penh on the 2nd and 3rd and arrested 10 South Koreans on charges including fraud using illegal gambling websites. The day before, police raided a rental low-rise apartment in Kampot city, Kampot province, and apprehended three South Koreans on suspicion of online fraud.
4. On the 10th, police also raided a scam workplace inside a Chinese-owned building in Phnom Penh and arrested 65 people, including 35 Chinese men and women. The arrests show the operation is moving across multiple locations and nationalities, not just one site or one network.
5. Jacob Sims, a visiting fellow at the Harvard University Asia Center and an expert on transnational crime, told the AP that past crackdowns left the financing and protection networks intact, allowing the organizations to rebuild quickly. He said the key question is whether this operation targets not only the buildings where scams occur, but the system that enables the scam industry.

For high-risk PSPs and acquirers, the Cambodia angle matters because the scam ecosystem has been tied to cross-border fraud, illegal gambling websites, and large-scale repatriations. The United States Institute of Peace estimated last year that more than $12.5 billion a year—about half of Cambodia’s gross domestic product (GDP)—comes from Cambodia’s scam industry.