Scamming operations relocate to Cambodia as China moves to protect its borders
Cambodia has experienced significant growth in online scamming operations and related human trafficking over the past 12 months, as Myanmar-based sites have relocated following a crackdown by Chinese authorities on compounds along its border, reports Cambodia CTIP in a new fact sheet.
In 2021 and 2022, the growth in Cambodia’s online scam industry was mirrored by the expansion of scamming operations – largely led by Chinese organized crime groups – into the ethnic enclaves of Myanmar’s Karen and Shan States and the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Laos. However, in 2023, as the threat to Chinese border security grew, the expansion into northern Shan State prompted a prolonged series of Chinese armed offensives to both detain Chinese criminals and rescue and repatriate Chinese trafficking victims.
Many scam operators in Myanmar chose to relocate to Cambodia, which offered a far safer operating environment – to date, no senior scamming operators have been arrested – and a wide variety of locations, all connected by functioning infrastructure and financial systems. Through early and mid-2024, Cambodia CTIP received reports of this relocation, some of it involving the wholesale shifting of entire operations and some involving movements confined to management or owners.