As Anti-Scam Crackdowns Continue, Gangs Look for New Hunting Grounds

This pool photo taken on July 17, 2025 and released on July 18 by Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP) shows military police looking at computers, smartphones and other equipment seized during a raid on a scam centre in Kandal province. The number of suspects arrested in a Cambodian crackdown on internet scam centres has risen to 2,000, a government minister told AFP on July 18. (Photo by POOL / AFP)

Around 1,800 Chinese nationals have been detained in the Cambodian authorities’ latest crackdown on scam compounds in the country. The country’s interior ministry said the arrests follow a raid on Saturday on an online fraud hub in Bavet, a city on the border with Vietnam. The arrests also included Thai, Myanmarese, and Taiwanese nationals.

The Chinese citizens will likely be extradited to China, where accelerated trials have already seen the execution of several scam kingpins. Last week, sixteen members of high-profile Chinese scam gangs that operated fraud operations in Myanmar were put to death in China.

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by Reuters

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