Cyber scam operations in Southeast Asia are estimated to siphon $10 billion annually from unsuspecting Americans. In response, the U.S. Department of Justice launched the Scam Center Strike Force in November 2025 to target Chinese organized crime affiliates operating in the region. The U.S. has imposed 146 sanctions on Cambodia, a major hub for these scams, to pressure the country into cracking down on the industry.
The Jin Zi Hui Property Management compound in southeast Cambodia, once a bustling center for online fraud, now stands abandoned. Inside the deserted offices, investigators found stacks of call scripts, handwritten notes on scamming techniques, and scattered SIM cards from AT&T and T-Mobile. The workers at these desks, until early 2026, targeted victims in the U.S., U.K., and China, luring them into fraudulent crypto-trading apps.
Many of the workers at these scam centers are themselves victims of human trafficking. Promised high salaries, they are tricked into relocating to Cambodia, where their passports are confiscated, and they are forced to work under threats of violence. The Cambodian government has seized over 3,700 personal computers and 11,000 mobile phones from these compounds, which were used to manage thousands of social media accounts for crypto fraud.
Despite Cambodia's claims of shutting down all large-scale scam operations following international pressure, experts warn that the problem persists. Jacob Sims, a visiting fellow at Harvard University's Asia Center, describes the scam ecosystem as a 'Silicon Valley of organized crime' that has developed sophisticated tools for crypto money laundering. With few criminal syndicates facing consequences, scam operations are likely to relocate to smaller sites within Cambodia or other countries like Sri Lanka and Madagascar.