Southeast Asia’s scam gangs regroup after Cambodia’s purge

Cambodia says it has flushed out a scam industry estimated to have stolen tens of billions of US dollars last year alone, but a string of arrests in recent days suggests the gangs behind it may have simply changed address.Scam centres proliferated across Cambodia during the pandemic, when hundreds of thousands of jobless young people were pulled into defunct casino complexes to target victims worldwide with bogus romance, cryptocurrency and investment frauds.Chinese criminal networks found an easy foothold in a country with a reputation for entrenched corruption, but that foothold brought intense pressure from Beijing, and later Washington, to dismantle the shadowy trade.Chinese public security officers escort a suspected China-born scam boss off a plane after he was extradited from Cambodia in April. Photo: China’s Ministry of Public Security / AFPThe sector operated largely in the open despite government denials of complicity or profit. It also triggered a human trafficking crisis, with tens – perhaps hundreds – of thousands forced to work in scam compounds.