Last week a trial was held in Seoul of 46 South Koreans, mostly men in their 20s, accused of taking part in operating online scams in Cambodia.
Since mid-October, South Korea has repatriated 107 citizens from Cambodia, where officials estimate more than 1,000 of its nationals are working “voluntarily or involuntarily” in scam complexes.
The repatriation effort follows a public outcry over the death of a South Korean college student who was allegedly lured to Cambodia and forced to work in a scam center. Marks of torture were found on the body of the 22-year-old youth, indicating that he may have been beaten to death.
According to the Cambodian court statement, the autopsy revealed that “she died as a result of severe torture, with multiple lacerations and injuries on her body.”
South Korean President Lee Jae-Myung said, “The government’s greatest responsibility is to protect the lives and safety of our people.”
“We must protect the victims and swiftly deport those involved in these incidents back to Korea,” Lee said.
South Korea recently joined the US, UK and Singapore in imposing sanctions on Cambodia’s Prince Holding Group, a multinational network whose founder is accused of running massive fraud operations in Southeast Asia – allegations the company has rejected.
“What we’ve seen recently is a push towards money chasing and banning, like in South Korea, and seizing people’s money,” said Brian Hanley, Asia-Pacific director of the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA), a global nonprofit that fights online fraud. “And we think it’s starting to have an impact.”
Southeast Asia scam network caused billions in losses
Southeast Asia has become a major hub of digital scam operations. It is estimated that more than 200,000 people have been trafficked to countries such as Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia under the guise of lucrative job offers. There they work in large scam centers that are part of the billion-dollar cyber fraud industry that run online fraud schemes.
These large scam operations are concentrated in remote conflict zones of Southeast Asia, particularly along Thailand’s borders with Cambodia and Myanmar.
Recent clashes between Thai and Cambodian forces have included attacks on suspected scam compounds in Cambodia. In Myanmar, such centers have proliferated and are reportedly funding both sides of the country’s ongoing civil war.
Scam center workers are typically citizens of Asian countries who are often victims of human trafficking, while scammers primarily target people from Western, English-speaking countries.
“We’re talking about human trafficking and slavery, so obviously this is a major human rights issue,” Hanley said. “But it is also a national security issue not only for the region but for the entire world.”
In its scams status 2025 According to the report, GASA estimates $442 billion (€375.4 billion) in losses due to scams worldwide in the 12 months ending October 2025. This figure may be higher because many people do not report their losses due to online scams.
GASA also found that 57% of adults worldwide have experienced a scam in the last 12 months.
Examples of scams include online shopping, investment, and romance scams, which fraudsters refer to as “pig slaughtering” – a term that often refers to “fattening up” victims by gaining their trust through fictitious romantic relationships.
Once trust has been established, the scammers convince victims to transfer funds to fake cryptocurrency investment platforms, which are then laundered through accounts across Asia, making recovery extremely difficult.
Why is America the top target for scam networks?
The FBI estimates that the scam industry in Southeast Asia defrauds Americans of $9 billion to $10 billion (€7.7 billion to €8.5 billion) per year.
The GASA report said $64.8 billion was stolen from Americans in the year ending in October 2025, with each victim losing an average of $1,087. It says the average American is now faced with a scam attempt every day.
In response to increasing cases of cyber fraud, US authorities established Scam Center Strike Force in November. It is an inter-agency task force focused on investigating, dismantling, and prosecuting scam centers and those who finance them.
“My office will not stand idly by as these Chinese organized crime enterprises empty the bank accounts of hard-working Americans,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro when launching the task force.
The US partnered with the UK in 2025 to impose sanctions on individuals and entities operating illegal scam centers in Southeast Asia.
Australia and Singapore have also made progress in enacting laws to protect their citizens from scams and have also cooperated with the US on law enforcement actions and sanctions.
For Jacob Sims, a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Asia Center who tracks transnational crime in Cambodia and greater Southeast Asia, the issue of scams has gained significant political traction in the US in the past year.
“A year ago today there was a sanction in D.C.,” Sims said. “And today, a large number of prominent names and entities have been sanctioned and there are a dozen bills in Congress.”
However, these actions have also been hampered by cuts to USAID programs in Southeast Asia that monitored human trafficking along the Thai-Myanmar border and in Cambodia, which were eliminated under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“The response so far, as speedy as it clearly has been, is not really a strategic response and is not yet commensurate with the threat or sufficient to meaningfully disrupt it,” Sims said.
China’s role in scam centers
Many major scam centers in Southeast Asia are said to be run by Chinese criminal networks.
China has taken steps to shut down scam centers in Cambodia and Myanmar – but only those targeting Chinese people.
A report The report submitted to the US Congress in July found few ties to these criminal networks with members of the Chinese government or the Chinese Communist Party (CPP), but said the activities of these organizations often further fuel these regional conflicts through corruption and crime.
Despite recent announcements of sanctions and criminal investigations, countries like South Korea and even the US appear reluctant to criticize the governments of China or Cambodia and instead directly target criminals and their networks.
According to Sims, Western capitals have proven credibly willing to tolerate industrial-scale scandals targeting their own citizens, as long as Phnom Penh cooperates enough to maintain the illusion that it remains strategically “in the game.”
“Many governments hesitate to directly confront Cambodia because they still see it as a decisive chess piece in the China-versus-West geopolitical game,” he said.
Edited by: Keith Walker