Preah Sihanouk Provincial Television, September 10 — The United States government announced on September 8 that it was sanctioning 19 companies and individuals linked to scam networks in Southeast Asia. Nine targets operated in Myanmar and ten were based in Cambodia. The move is the Trump administration’s latest measure against large-scale online fraud in the region.
The United States alleges that the organisations force trafficked people to carry out cryptocurrency investment scams and coerce victims into telecommunications fraud under threats of violence.
The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said in a statement that the nine Myanmar targets operated in Shwe Kokko, where the Karen National Army (KNA) provided protection to the scam hub. The ten Cambodia-based targets were also accused of involvement in large-scale fraud. Treasury Under Secretary Hurley stressed that such scams threatened Americans’ financial security and trapped thousands in “modern slavery”. Americans lost more than US$10 billion to Southeast Asian scams last year alone.
According to the report, many jobseekers are lured to scam compounds by false recruitment offers, then subjected to debt bondage, violence and even forced prostitution, and compelled to scam strangers through messaging applications or text messages.
Responding to the sanctions that day, Cambodian Interior Ministry spokesperson Touch Sokhak said Cambodia had long been firmly fighting cybercrime. It had launched large-scale operations before the border conflict with Thailand broke out.
Touch Sokhak said Cambodia was willing to work with all parties, including the United States, through bilateral, multilateral and global cooperation to combat and prevent cybercrime. Cambodia had provided no shelter to scam groups and was itself a victim of these crimes, he said.
Compiled by our newsroom
