Cambodia claims scam compounds shut, but experts demand tougher action

Phnompenh,UPDATED: Sep 23, 2026 14:16 IST

Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Manet said on Wednesday that the country had dismantled all large-scale scam compounds for which it had become known globally, though his government did not provide significant new evidence to back the claim. Other governments and experts, however, said Cambodia has still not done enough against those behind the scam industry, which has harmed people around the world, and called for criminal prosecutions.

Hun Manet was speaking at a two-day conference on tackling cyber scams being hosted by Cambodia along with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and Interpol. Cambodia had declared success in August after shutting down hundreds of scam compounds, and Hun Manet and other speakers said no country could deal with the issue alone and that stronger joint efforts were needed.

"As a result of our efforts, we have completely dismantled all large-scale scam compounds in the kingdom. Even as organised syndicates attempt to fragment into smaller decentralised operations, our law enforcement apparatus stays vigilant and ready to dismantle any emerging threats in the system," Hun Manet said in his speech. On Tuesday, authorities took reporters to a few empty scam compounds to show the action taken to close them.

Experts said Cambodia had not done enough to break up the criminal structures that allowed the compounds to flourish, though they agreed that many compounds appeared to have been shut. "The Cambodian government has indeed closed most of the large compounds, but it has done comparably little to dismantle the criminal organisations running those cyberscam operations or to investigate and punish Cambodian business and political elites who protected and profited from these criminal enterprises," said Mark Taylor, an anti-trafficking consultant and former head of an anti-trafficking programme in Cambodia.

US Representative Brian Mast, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is one of two congressional leaders who have called for considering sanctions on key Cambodian political figures, including Deputy Prime Minister Neth Savoeun, over their alleged links to scam centre operations. Cyber scam operations grew especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Victims have lost tens of billions to scams carried out by hundreds of thousands of people forced to keep the schemes going. Southeast Asia has seen the growth of many scam compounds, particularly in countries where law enforcement has been weak.

In July, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said estimates of combined losses in 2025 ranged from USD 88.3 billion to USD 114.1 billion. Cambodia says it has dismantled large scam compounds, but experts and foreign lawmakers say action against the networks and people behind them remains incomplete.

With PTI Inputs

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