‘The masterminds are abroad’: CCOS responds to damning Amnesty scam report
Chhay Sinarith, head of the Secretariat of the Commission for Combating Online Scams (CCOS), has responded to an Amnesty International report that questions the effectiveness of the current crackdown on online scam compounds, insisting that the operations are run by shadowy foreign figures. Post AI
Cambodia’s top anti-scam official has warned that the sprawling online scam industry that has spread across Asia is no longer confined to any single country. He noted that criminal networks have evolved into a borderless enterprise powered by international money flows, sophisticated technology and organisers operating far beyond the reach of local law enforcement.
Chhay Sinarith, head of the Secretariat of the Commission for Combating Online Scams (CCOS), issued a statement that responds directly to a new Amnesty International report that questions the effectiveness of the country’s ongoing efforts to crackdown on online scam compounds.
For Sinarith, the debate highlights a larger reality confronting authorities worldwide. He argued that the challenge facing governments today extends far beyond raiding buildings or arresting suspects on the ground.
“Global cybercrime cannot be resolved unilaterally,” he said.
“The core operating systems, command technologies and especially the financial chains, money laundering flows and real masterminds are outside Cambodia’s jurisdiction,” he added.
His remarks come as governments across Asia intensify efforts to combat online fraud operations that have generated billions of dollars in illicit proceeds while drawing in victims and perpetrators from dozens of countries.
The latest Amnesty International report, titled Falling Through the Cracks: Cambodia’s “Crackdown” on Scamming Compounds and the Victims It Has Failed, argues that serious abuses linked to scam compounds continue despite the government’s nationwide anti-scam campaign.
The organisation said it identified 86 scam compounds across Cambodia by April 2026, up from the 53 identified in its previous investigation. Researchers interviewed 73 survivors who described experiences of human trafficking, forced labour, torture, unlawful confinement and other abuses inside compounds linked to online fraud operations.
Among them was a young East African woman identified as “Winta”, who told investigators she had been trafficked through multiple countries before ending up in Cambodia.
“They handcuffed me to a chair and made me stand for two days. Then they beat us and put us in the car,” she said.
The report also alleges that many trafficking victims were moved between compounds to avoid intensified enforcement efforts, allowing criminal groups to evade detection. The report suggested collusion between the authorities and criminal enterprises.
A Kenyan survivor identified as Wambui told Amnesty that workers were warned ahead of police visits.
“They told us to not hang our clothes outside when police would be coming,” she said.
Two other survivors described being relocated shortly before an expected operation.
“They said the police are coming and put us on a bus and drove us into the mountains,” they told researchers.
Amnesty argued that such accounts raised concerns about the effectiveness of the crackdown.
The organisation said it found evidence of state interventions at only 24 of the 86 compounds it identified and questioned whether many operations had been fully dismantled.
Cambodian authorities strongly rejected claims that the government’s crackdown was superficial.
According to figures released by CCOS, authorities dismantled more than 400 cyber scam cases between July 2025 and May 20, 2026.
During that period, 25 casino licences linked to online scam activities were revoked or suspended, while 143 cases involving 1,458 suspects were referred to the courts.
Sinarith argued that such figures demonstrate a sustained nationwide effort involving multiple institutions and enforcement agencies.
He also disputed suggestions that several locations had been ignored.
Many sites identified by activists and researchers, he said, are mixed-use developments containing condominiums, hotels and legitimate businesses alongside suspected criminal activity, requiring investigators to gather sufficient evidence before launching raids.
Authorities must balance enforcement efforts with the protection of lawful business activities and property rights, he added.
The senior minister also defended the government’s treatment of foreign nationals removed from scam operations, describing many interventions as humanitarian rescue efforts rather than purely criminal investigations.
According to government figures, Cambodian authorities repatriated 18,864 foreign nationals linked to online scam operations between January 2025 and May 24, 2026.
The individuals came from 33 different countries and territories.
He says many had been trapped in illegal working conditions and required shelter, medical support and assistance returning home.
The debate over Cambodia’s response comes amid growing international concern over the rapid evolution of cyber-enabled organised crime.
In neighbouring Sri Lanka, authorities recently intensified cooperation with China to combat online gambling and telecom fraud networks after uncovering increasing activity linked to foreign criminal groups.
The Chinese Embassy in Colombo warned that syndicates displaced by crackdowns elsewhere in East and Southeast Asia were seeking to establish operations in new jurisdictions with weaker enforcement capacities.
The warning reflects a broader pattern increasingly observed across the region: scam syndicates are highly mobile, shifting personnel, technology and financial assets across borders whenever pressure intensifies in one location.
For law enforcement agencies, shutting down a compound is often only one part of a much larger challenge.
Victims may be recruited in Africa or Latin America, trafficked through several countries, forced to work in scam centres in Southeast Asia and directed by organisers operating from entirely different jurisdictions.
The profits generated may then be laundered through complex international financial networks spanning multiple continents.
Sinarith argued that this reality makes international cooperation indispensable.
Cambodia, he said, has increasingly relied on intelligence-sharing mechanisms, mutual legal assistance agreements and cross-border financial investigations to identify and pursue individuals directing operations from abroad.
The goal is not only to arrest workers or local managers, but to dismantle the criminal structures that continue to finance and coordinate fraud on a global scale.
While Amnesty has called for greater transparency, stronger victim protection and more effective enforcement, Cambodian authorities insist that lasting success will depend on cooperation among governments rather than action by any one country alone.
The contrasting views underscore the complexity of confronting what has become one of the world’s fastest-growing forms of organised crime.
For Sinarith, the buildings may be located in here, but the people who profit most from them often are not.
“The real masterminds are abroad,” he repeated, urging deeper international cooperation to dismantle the global networks behind online fraud.
-Phnom Penh Post-
