Cambodia - scams ground zero

May 2025: People are being trafficked and held prisoner in scam compounds in Cambodia and other South East Asian countries, and being forced to scam victims in western countries. View video from my recent trip here

The United Nations estimate that well over 100,000 people are forced to work in scam compounds across South East Asia. Cambodia is a hotspot.

Stories of confiscated passports, bars on windows, torture and mysterious deaths are commonplace.

Ironically, some of the organised criminals behind forced-scamming have apparently been able to invest their ill-gotten gains in properties in the UK and elsewhere in the western world - the very banks that are trying hard to protect their customers from scams are inadvertently facilitating the integration of these stolen funds back into the legitimate economy.

Far greater international co-operation is needed if we are to turn the tide on scams.

You can read more about compound crime in the report below.

https://globalinitiative.net/analysis/compound-crime-cyber-scam-operations-in-southeast-asia/#:~:text=In%20this%20report%2C%20we%20expose,become%20centres%20of%20global%20fraud.