Cambodian City Under Chinese Scammers: Young People "Imprisoned" for Fraud

The streets of Sihanoukville, a southwestern Cambodian city, are lined with gray buildings, iron-barred windows, and thick concrete walls. They look like high-security prisons.

However, these are not ordinary prisons but “yuanqu”—a fraud factory in the language of Chinese crime circles.

Recently, on 18 October, South Korean investigators uncovered a case in which thousands of Chinese fraudsters fled their Cambodian bases to Laos and Myanmar.

Imprisoned and forced to work as fraud

Voice phishing, online love traps, and various types of cyber fraud are carried out daily in these compounds run by Chinese syndicates.

Young people from South Korea, Indonesia, and other countries are lured in, their passports and phones taken away, and then forced to work in these jobs. The ground-floor windows are barred with iron bars so that no one can escape.

According to local residents, most of the centers are run by Chinese nationals; some South Korean intermediaries also work as their assistants. According to Amnesty International, there are more than 53 such compounds in Cambodia alone.

From canteens to casinos—all under the guise of fraud

The crime ring is also active inside the city’s luxury hotels and casinos. “Sometimes food orders come from these compounds. When we deliver, a Chinese man comes out and takes the food,” said a South Korean restaurant owner.

Additionally, two South Koreans told local police that they were locked up in a 13-story hotel and forced to do voice phishing. The first 10 floors of the building were for general guests, while the rest were the gang’s bases.

‘The whole city is a prison’

Oh Chang-su, head of the Korean community in Sihanoukville and a missionary, said, “The whole city of Sihanoukville has now become a huge prison.” Also, he added that a young man in his 20’s was trapped in this building and tried to get out of this and asked for help, but the security was so tight that he could not escape and then he gave up.

Although locals say the crime ring has been growing for years under the watchful eyes of the authorities, but the crackdown is still limited.

Previously, 2,000 were arrested in the July crackdown

However, earlier this year, in July, the Cambodian government carried out a massive operation against various fraud centers in the country, arresting about 2,000 people.

The operation, ordered by Prime Minister Hun Sen, seized a large amount of electronic equipment and databases. Among those detained were Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesian and Indian citizens.

Furthermore, human rights organizations said that these fraud centers were mainly operated through human trafficking, forced labor, child labor, and torture. A report by Amnesty International said that the government ignored the activities of these criminal groups for years.

Former Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra called it a “world-class crime hub” and said that these fraud centers in Cambodia are a threat to regional security. According to the United Nations, these fraud centers in Southeast Asia generate about $40 billion in illegal profits annually.

Watch the video here.