Cambodia says it has dismantled scam compounds, while experts call for criminal prosecutions

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia’s prime minister said Wednesday the country had eradicated the large-scale scam compounds it became known for globally, without providing significant new evidence.

Other governments and experts said Cambodia has not done enough against the perpetrators of the scam industry that has harmed people globally and called for criminal prosecutions.

“As a result of our efforts, we have completely dismantled all large-scale scam compounds in the kingdom. Even as organized syndicates attempt to fragment into smaller decentralized operations, our law enforcement apparatus stays vigilant and ready to dismantle any emerging threats in the system,” Prime Minister Hun Manet said in a speech at a conference on tackling cyberscams.

Cambodia was hosting the two-day conference with the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime and Interpol. It took reporters to a few empty scam compounds Tuesday to showcase its efforts to close them.

Cambodia declared success in August after shutting down hundreds of scam compounds. Hun Manet and other speakers noted that no country could tackle the issue alone and each called for joint efforts.

Experts said Cambodia has not done enough to shut down the criminal structures that allowed the compounds to flourish but agreed many compounds appeared to have been shut.

“The Cambodian government has indeed closed most of the large compounds, but it has done comparably little to dismantle the criminal organizations running those cyberscam operations or to investigate and punish Cambodian business and political elites who protected and profited from these criminal enterprises,” said Mark Taylor, an anti-trafficking consultant and former head of an anti-trafficking program in Cambodia.

U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is one of two congressional leaders who has called for considering sanctions on key Cambodian political figures, including one of the country’s deputy prime ministers, Neth Savoeun, over their alleged links to scam center operations.

Cyberscam operations grew especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Victims have lost tens of billions to scams carried out by hundreds of thousands of people forced to keep the schemes going. Southeast Asia had seen the growth of many scam compounds, particularly in countries where law enforcement has been weak.

Estimates of combined losses ranged from $88.3 billion to $114.1 billion in 2025, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime said in July.