PHNOM PENH: Online-crime groups use advertisements promising “high pay and easy work” to draw foreign youth into traps. A 22-year-old Indonesian who had been stuck in Cambodia for more than three years warned that promises of easy money could leave people as victims of such crime.
Speaking recently to Agence Kampuchea Presse in Phnom Penh, the youth from West Sulawesi said he came to Cambodia on a tourist visa in 2022 after finishing high school. A friend had told him work was easy and paid US$800 to US$1,000 a month.
The reporter gave him the pseudonym Andi Agus. He said he and another friend were taken to Preah Sihanouk on arrival and promised US$800 monthly, but received less than US$200 after accommodation, transport and food deductions.
Andi did not describe his work in detail, but said the employer was Chinese. He worked with the friend who travelled with him for only one month before they were separated. He had not seen the friend who recruited him since arriving.
He said he was moved repeatedly between workplaces in Preah Sihanouk, Mondulkiri, Kampot, Poipet, Bavet and finally Phnom Penh. He escaped the situation after Cambodian authorities launched enforcement operations.
In a separate interview at a Phnom Penh–Sihanoukville expressway stop, a Pakistani man said he came looking for work but became stranded in Preah Sihanouk. He was seeking a way home after a Chinese employer abandoned the team about a week earlier.
The man said an acquaintance had drawn him into online crime, and strict management prevented workers from moving freely.
According to the secretariat of the commission combating technology-enabled scams, authorities acted on more than 200 cases at over 2,500 locations in the preceding eight months. More than 8,000 foreigners were deported and case files were prepared against over 500 alleged organisers and associates. Separately, over 223,600 foreigners voluntarily returned home, including Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals.
Prime Minister Hun Manet said anti-scam work was a long-term commitment to national security and the country’s future, rather than a campaign with an end date.
At the March 6, 2026 closing of the National Authority for Combating Drugs’ conference reviewing 2025 work and setting 2026 priorities, he said enforcement sought to protect the lawful economy and the country’s future.
He described black, grey and white economies: the first two involved illegal or potentially risky activities, while the white economy included lawful agriculture, tourism, industry and services. The government pledged to prevent black and grey activities from harming the lawful economy supporting livelihoods.
The report said sites previously suspected of major online-crime activity, including Mango Park 1 and Mango Park 2 in Takeo, and casinos and centres in Preah Sihanouk had stopped operating.
A tuk-tuk driver in Sihanoukville said the locations had previously been busy day and night and employed many Cambodians, but were now so quiet that they appeared abandoned. Written by KPS99TV.
