'Free to enter and exit': Job ads lift veil on working in scam compounds

An analysis of job advertisements assessed to have been posted by Cambodian scam syndicates has provided insights into the multi-billion-dollar industry and evidence it has survived amid a crackdown by the country's government. 

Cambodian digital rights advocate Moses Ngeth collected 4,991 ads posted in 37 public Cambodian job listing groups on the messaging platform Telegram between April 2023 and July this year.

While the jobs were posted anonymously, Mr Ngeth said details including wording and the locations provided showed their intent.

Cambodia became a global hub of cybercrime from the early 2020s when an online gambling ban and the pandemic saw many of the country's casinos turned into scam centres.   

While criminals often use job advertisements as part of their scams, Mr Ngeth said the ones he analysed were for real jobs in the scam operations.

The ads — posted in Khmer, Chinese and English — for roles such as "add contact", "model real face", "model AI", "killer", "money mule" and "AI model developer" were coded, he said.

He explained the "add contact" roles found potential victims online and initiated conversations with them via text messages while a "model", usually a woman, was the person who appeared on video calls.

"Real face" meant the model would appear on the video as themselves, while a "model AI" would use an AI-generated mask.

The role of a "killer" was to take over the chat and convince victims to hand over their money and "money mules" provided bank accounts used to withdraw and help launder the proceeds. An "AI model developer" operated the AI face-swapping technology.

Other vacancies included office staff such as accountants, HR, receptionists and admin.

Mr Ngeth said location data provided in some of the listings lined up with scam compounds identified by organisations such as Amnesty International.

Payment offered ranged from $US600 ($852) a month for victim finders, the most commonly advertised job, up to $US7,000 a month for a female model with a "Western face". A job offer for a "Japanese Female Call Operator" offered up to $US12,000 a month. About one-quarter of the job ads also offered commissions.

Some advertisements specified a target "market" such as the US, Europe, India, Korea and Japan. Ten ads mentioned Australia and New Zealand. 

A fake Australian Federal Police office of the type used in so-called "authority scams" was last year discovered in a Cambodian scam compound.

While many of those working in scam operations do so willingly, the industry also commonly uses trafficked labour, with victims lured by offers of legitimate jobs but then forced to scam under threat of torture. 

Hundreds of the job ads explicitly specified that workers would be "free to enter and exit".

"Your passport and cellphone will NOT be held … You're free to go WHENEVER you want," said one ad. 

Cambodia hosts anti-scam conference

Following sustained international pressure, the Cambodian government initiated a crackdown on scam operations in mid-2025 and vowed to eliminate the industry by April this year.

The government raided several scam compounds, while others pre-emptively disbanded, causing an exodus of foreigners left to find their own way back to their home countries. 

Cambodia on Wednesday and Thursday hosted a global conference on cyber fraud, with the government touting the success of the crackdown.

"Cambodia will never be a safe haven for online scams," Prime Minister Hun Manet said in an opening speech in Phnom Penh, where delegates from more than a dozen countries, including the US and China, had gathered.

On Monday and Tuesday, reporters toured sprawling centres shuttered by the government, one housing as many as 20,000 workers. 

Hay Makara, an official from Cambodia's anti-scam commission, said authorities had so far closed 663 scam sites, including 86 large compounds, and frozen $US300 million in scam-related accounts.

"As of now, there are no more scam compounds," he told reporters.

However, he conceded that "the criminals are adapting ... working from rented homes, rented rooms, hotels, even in cars".

Industry continues despite crackdown

Despite the crackdown, Mr Ngeth said the pattern of job ads indicated the industry had evolved but not ceased.

He said the number of job ads in the channels he was monitoring reached 899 in January this year, dropped to a low of 162 in May, before recovering to 588 in July.

However, Mr Ngeth said much of the work advertised in the ads was moving overseas to countries including Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, Turkey, China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the Philippines. Some offered work from home.

Several advertisements were for models to work in Timor-Leste, where at least one operation has been recently shut down by local authorities.

Mr Ngeth said that between July 2025 and April, about 5 per cent of ads were for jobs outside Cambodia. From May to July, it was 55 per cent.

He said he was concerned that the skills acquired by the scam participants in Cambodia were being used to start operations in other countries. 

"The ads do not show the end of this [problem], " he said. "They show the beginning."

While several officials have been arrested, analysts and opposition figures say Cambodia's crackdown has left politically connected figures who allegedly protected the networks untouched.

Transnational crime analyst Jacob Sims said it was "undeniable" the government had acted but warned: "The elite protection networks, the buildings themselves, the financial institutions, the corporate institutions are all completely in place."

"They could come back tomorrow," he said.

Cambodian Interior Ministry spokesperson Touch Sokhak did not respond to the ABC's questions about the job advertisements or the lack of accountability for senior government figures.

However, he previously told local media outlet Camboja News that the ministry had in the past identified and shut down fraudulent social media accounts posting job ads.

"Till now, we have asserted that there are few of those social media job recruitment ads for these operations, if compared to the past because of legal enforcement by the Ministry of Interior and other key actors," he said.

Mr Ngeth said that some of the recruiters' channels and groups were still active on Telegram. 

"Telegram has not removed them, and there is no sign that the government has asked it to," he said. 

"For these reasons, the crackdown has cut the grass but left the root in the ground."

Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn said in a statement scamming and scammer recruitment were forbidden by Telegram's terms of service. 

"Moderators empowered with custom AI tools proactively monitor public parts of the platform and accept reports in order to remove millions of pieces of harmful content each day, including scams," they said.