Myanmar scam operators resurface in Cambodia, top police says

Many scammers, of numerous nationalities, who used to work in the Shwe Kokko and KK Park scam compounds in Myanmar’s Myawaddy province, have escaped to Cambodia to establish a new transnational scam compound, located about 50km inland from Poipet, Pol Gen Thana Chuwong, the deputy national police chief and head of the Anti-Cyber Scam Centre (ACSC), told the media today.

He said that the recent crackdown on scam centres, several of which were bombed or dismantled by the Myanmar government and its Karen allies, with the support of the Chinese and Thai governments, has forced many scammers, including some Thai nationals, to relocate to Cambodia and Thailand.

Those who escaped to Thailand have been arrested, detained and screened, to separate the voluntary scammers from victims who were duped and forced to work at scam centres.

Pol Gen Thana said those who moved to Cambodia, including Indian, Indonesian, Chinese and Thai nationals, have been working in the new compound.

The facility is a two-storey building, divided into a work space and a residential area, next to Mali Park and expansion work is under way.

Thana said that the emergence of a new scam compound in Cambodia is a clear indication that the problem of transnational cybercrime has become more serious and complicated and that it cannot be addressed by one country, but requires the close and serious cooperation of several countries.

Since December 28, the ACSC has received more than 6,000 complaints, with damage estimated at about 262 million baht. That is an average of about 31 million baht per day.

Most of the scam complaints concern online trade (about 80.3%). Although the amount of money involved in the individual scams is small, the practice appears to be widespread, said Thana.

The second most common type of scam operation is offering fake job opportunities, with promises of high pay, followed by romance scams.