Cambodian authorities conducting a raid on an online scam network. (Agence Kampuchea Presse)
On September 21, Cambodian authorities revealed that more than 20,900 suspects had been detained in a nationwide crackdown on online scams during the first half of the year, just two days before Cambodia hosted an international conference on combating online scams in Phnom Penh. Authorities also disclosed having deported 46,474 foreign nationals, including 16,874 people directly linked to cyber-fraud from 34 nationalities. While these figures demonstrate the scale of Cambodia’s enforcement efforts, they also reveal a broader challenge: online scams are no longer confined to individual criminal operations but are embedded in cross-border networks involving people, technology, migration and finance.
The scale of the operations suggests that Cambodia is confronting an extensive ecosystem. During the same six-month period, authorities inspected more than 28,500 locations under Sub-Decree 03, a national security law targeting gated and crowded residential areas to systematically register occupants, track foreign nationals and dismantle illicit cyber-scam networks. The subsequent operations covered over 100,000 individuals and conducted more than 21,000 street checks involving approximately 44,000 people. These operations uncovered evidence, criminal suspects and 2,340 undocumented foreigners from 20 nationalities. The diversity of people and locations involved illustrates how online scams can intersect with other forms of transnational activity, particularly irregular migration and organised crime. Consequently, the challenge facing Phnom Penh extends beyond identifying fraudulent online activity to managing the broader infrastructure in which these operations function.
At the same time, the enforcement figures demonstrate the limitations of a purely domestic approach. Raiding scam locations and detaining suspects can disrupt individual operations, but these measures do not necessarily eliminate the networks behind them. The cross-border nature of online scams means that different stages of the criminal process may take place in different jurisdictions. Individuals can be recruited in one country, be transported to another, be made to operate scam platforms targeting victims elsewhere and be connected to financial networks operating across several jurisdictions. As a result, dismantling a physical scam centre does not automatically dismantle the wider network supporting it.
This explains the increasing emphasis on international cooperation in Cambodia’s response. At the International Conference on Combating Online Scams in Phnom Penh on September 23, Cambodian officials argued that no country can address the problem individually. Representatives from Cambodia, Myanmar, Timor-Leste, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Singapore, Uganda, the United Kingdom, Vietnam and the ASEAN Secretariat similarly identified online scams as a transnational organised-crime challenge. Their emphasis on stronger laws, faster cross-border information sharing, joint law-enforcement operations and financial investigations points towards a broader approach in which cooperation between states becomes an essential component of enforcement.
This position was also echoed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Speaking at the conference’s opening ceremony, UNODC Regional Representative Delphine Schantz called for stronger international cooperation to address the rapidly evolving threat of online scams and cyber-enabled crime, stressing that no country can tackle the problem alone. She described the conference as evidence of Cambodia’s commitment to international cooperation and of a shared priority among countries and international partners to develop more effective responses. The UNODC’s involvement therefore reinforces the broader shift in how online scams are being approached: governments and international organisations increasingly view them as a cross-border threat requiring coordinated responses.
The concept of “breaking the chain” is particularly significant in this context. Rather than focusing exclusively on the people operating scam platforms, authorities are increasingly identifying multiple stages of the criminal process, from recruitment and human trafficking to scam operations, financial transfers and money laundering. This approach recognises that scam centres function as part of a wider network. Disrupting one stage may have limited impact if the other stages remain operational. Financial investigations, for example, can potentially identify the movement of illicit funds and provide information about the organisers and financiers behind the operations, while cross-border intelligence sharing can help authorities connect activities occurring in different countries.
The human dimension further complicates the enforcement challenge. People encountered within scam operations may play different roles, ranging from organisers and financiers to frontline operators, recruited workers or individuals who may have been trafficked. The conference therefore placed emphasis not only on bringing perpetrators to justice but also on protecting victims. This distinction is important because treating everyone found within a scam operation as an identical category of offender risks overlooking the coercive and exploitative structures that can exist within these networks. A comprehensive response consequently requires both criminal accountability and mechanisms for identifying and protecting people who have themselves been exploited.
In the short term, intensified raids and international cooperation are likely to disrupt existing scam operations and reduce activity in some locations. However, these measures may also lead to the displacement or reorganisation of criminal networks rather than an immediate and sustained decline in online scams, particularly if networks can shift their operations across jurisdictions. The longer-term impact will therefore depend on whether enforcement efforts can disrupt the wider cross-border infrastructure supporting these networks, including recruitment, financial transfers and money laundering. Overall, the measures are more likely to produce disruption and displacement in the short term, while a sustained reduction in online scams will depend on the continuity and effectiveness of international enforcement.
About The Author
