Five young men thought they were going to Cambodia to intern at a casino. Instead they say they became enslaved in one of the world’s most sophisticated fraud networks, an industry that has swindled billions of dollars from Americans and turned Southeast Asia into the online scam capital of the world.
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Lured by the promise of well-paying jobs, hundreds of thousands of people like them from China, Southeast Asia and other countries across the world have been coerced into engaging in scams such as posing as women online, cultivating intimate relationships with foreigners to defraud them of their savings in what are known as “pig butchering” schemes.
“We were forced to do a job that is an illegal job,” said a 22-year-old victim, one of five men in their 20s from Madagascar who described their experiences to NBC News. The five men requested anonymity for fear they could be identified by their traffickers, who they believe are still at large.
Under pressure from the U.S. and other foreign governments as well as rights groups, Cambodia is cracking down on cybercrime rings that are mostly run by Chinese gangs and have flourished since taking off during the pandemic, passing landmark legislation on the issue in April.
But dismantling Cambodia’s scam industry is no easy task, experts and victims say, pointing to its sophistication, its political connections and its economic entrenchment in the country of 18 million people, where its estimated revenue is equivalent to up to 60% of formal GDP.
“It’s good that they finally have a law on the books,” said Cezary Podkul, author of an upcoming book about Southeast Asian scam operations, “The Big Trace.”
Even if the law is enforced, however, it “is not the silver bullet that’s going to solve this whole issue,” he said.
In April, the U.S. Department of Justice said it had frozen $700 million in alleged scam-related cryptocurrency, a fraction of the $10 billion that Americans are estimated to have lost to Southeast Asian scam operations in 2024 alone.
U.S. officials also seized a Telegram channel that was luring workers to a forced labor compound in Cambodia “where they were ordered to pose as U.S. banks and NYPD to steal Americans’ life savings,” said Jeanine Pirro, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
Though Cambodia has taken action against the scam operations, including thousands of arrests, Pirro said, “We are waiting to see whether that will actually change the prevalence of scams in Cambodia.”
‘If you don’t work, we will kill you’
The five men from Madagascar, an island off the southeastern coast of Africa that is one of the world’s poorest countries, were searching for jobs overseas and came across the “internship” separately through online ads and in one case through a teacher. When they arrived in June 2025 at the casino in O’Smach, a border town in northern Cambodia, their phones and passports were confiscated, they said.
They described being physically abused, denied food and access to bathrooms, and being forced to work long hours luring men into scams using fake online profiles.
“We were afraid because the company was very big,” said one of the men, 21.
“They said if you don’t work, we will kill you,” he added.
The men also found themselves under fire as Cambodia and Thailand went to war with each other over a border dispute last year, with much of the fighting concentrated on the scam compounds. The Thai government said the Cambodian military was using them to house soldiers and equipment, an allegation Cambodian officials denied.
Videos of the O’Smach compound verified by NBC News showed buildings crumbling under the strikes, plumes of debris clouding the sky, and people screaming as they ran for cover.
Strikes during the first stage of the conflict last June killed at least 101 people on both sides of the conflict and caused thousands more to flee their homes, bringing international attention to the cybercrime industry. Earlier this year, Cambodian officials said they had shut down about 190 scam compounds, arresting high-ranking members of the criminal syndicates that ran them.
After months of protesting and refusing to work, the five men from Madagascar, who by now had become friends, were set free from the O’Smach compound in July of last year.
But victims who were released from the scam compounds often had nowhere to stay and no way to get home. Many of them, including the five men from Madagascar, ended up in detention centers in what quickly spiraled into what rights groups said was a humanitarian crisis.
An economic quandary
Experts say Cambodia’s scam operations reach into the highest levels of government. In April, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Kok An, a wealthy Cambodian senator, along with 28 individuals and entities in his network accused of stealing millions of dollars from Americans through crypto-romance scams.
Treasury officials said Kok An — a close ally of Senate President Hun Sen, who ruled Cambodia for 38 years before handing power to his son in 2023 — had used his political connections to protect a network of scam centers operating out of properties tied to his business holdings, including the hospitality company Crown Resorts. He could not be reached for comment but has previously denied the allegations.
Hun Sen is also leading Cambodia’s national anti-scam committee. Last week, he said that officials who failed to combat online scams in their areas could lose their jobs and face legal action.
Obtained by NBC News
“If we do not do this, we will face certain catastrophe,” he said, according to The Phnom Penh Post.
Cambodia has already extradited multiple Chinese nationals accused of being involved in scam operations for prosecution in China. Last week, six Chinese nationals were sentenced to life in prison by a Cambodian court after being convicted of torturing and murdering a 22-year-old South Korean student involved with a scam center last year.
China — whose own nationals have also been enslaved — says it is cooperating with Cambodia on combating cross-border fraud.
But the problem is not just legal but economic for Cambodia, whose other main sectors include tourism and garment manufacturing.
Even though Cambodia has made operating an online scam center punishable by life in prison, Podkul said the government has come up with no alternative form of employment for the thousands of people who depend on the scam centers, including restaurants and even barbers that have popped up nearby.
“It’s not just a matter of cracking down, you’ve got to replace it with something else,” he said, “to replace this illicit economy with a licit economy.”
After spending months in Cambodian immigration detention centers, the five men from Madagascar returned home with help from Association Missions Stages, a humanitarian group that operates in Madagascar, Cambodia and Vietnam.
They say they are once again struggling to make ends meet.
“It is very difficult to find a job here, but anyway, we have to try our best, because it is what it is,” said another of the men from Madagascar. “We can do nothing, but we have to do our best to make our life better.”
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