Cambodia has declared it no longer hosts any online scam centers that once made the country a global cybercrime hotspot, while human rights groups and experts warn that such claims are hard to independently verify.
In a statement released on Friday (August 28), Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith, who heads the government's special committee against online scams, told 50 diplomats and international officials on Thursday that "large-scale scam activities have been fully brought under control and there are currently no more online scam centers in the country."
The statement attributed this outcome to a "campaign to completely eradicate large-scale online scam operations, strictly deal with perpetrators, networks, and involved officials, and progressively improve the legal framework for cybersecurity."
However, the statement also acknowledged that criminal groups have shifted to more decentralized operations—hiding in guesthouses, condominiums, rental homes, vehicles, and coffee shops—and that authorities would continue crackdowns.
These scam centers, largely run by Chinese criminal gangs, flourished in Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, and the Myanmar-Thailand border area after the pandemic. Reuters could not independently verify the eradication claim.
Montse Ferrer, co-regional director at Amnesty International, said the organization is "highly skeptical of claims that the scam industry has been effectively eliminated," stressing that "the real measure of long-term success is not the number of centers closed, but whether the masterminds are investigated, prosecuted, and prevented from resuming operations."
Mark Taylor, an independent anti-trafficking consultant, said: "Placing strong confidence in the Cambodian government's assertion that all domestic scam operations have been wiped out is entirely misguided and lacks foundation."
"There are credible indications that large-scale scam activities are ongoing and that recruitment of foreigners into Cambodia for scam work is still happening," he added.
Minister Chhay Sinarith said law enforcement had investigated 793 suspected sites and raided 624 locations from July 2025 to August 20, 2026, detaining nearly 30,000 suspects from 39 nationalities. Authorities rescued and repatriated 58,266 foreigners, while 3,477 suspects from 29 nationalities were arrested and held pending trial, he added.
