Speaking on February 25, Mr. Chhay Sinarith - Senior State Secretary, Chairman of the Secretariat of the Cambodian Commission for Cybercrime Prevention - affirmed: "The problem of online fraud has decreased to only 50%.
He said this is a preliminary estimate based on the overall decline in fraudulent activities, but did not specify the calculation method, the number of establishments still operating or their specific scale.
In recent years, Cambodia has become a hotspot for investment fraud, online love scams and illegal online gambling. Many criminal organizations are accused of having links to networks in Southeast Asia and China, taking advantage of cyberspace to appropriate victims' money globally.
Cambodian authorities said they have conducted hundreds of raids, deported 30,000 foreign citizens since May 2025 and prosecuted nearly 500 suspects related to illegal online activities.
One of the notable cases is the arrest and extradition of Chen Zhi - the person accused of leading a large-scale fraud network - to China. Mr. Chhay Sinarith said that the related investigations are still being handled by the court and declined to comment further.
According to this official, more than 100 online fraud cases are being investigated, including tracking cash flow and personal assets. The authorities' goal is to "put all remaining activities under control before April.
He emphasized that he would bring the ringleaders and masterminds to justice, and affirmed that the state is about to "fully control all online fraud activities, both small and large".
However, analysts of transnational crime warn that completely eliminating it is a significant challenge.
Gangs often quickly change locations and methods of operation when being raided. Low operating costs, huge profits and the support of new technologies - especially artificial intelligence - make this type of crime increasingly sophisticated.
According to estimates by the American Peace Institute, criminal networks operating online gambling and online fraud globally have appropriated nearly 64 billion USD in 2023 alone.
The United Nations warns that scam centers in Southeast Asia have become a multi-billion dollar industry, partly driven by human trafficking, with thousands of workers forced to participate in online scams.
Mr. Scott Schelble - Deputy Assistant Director in charge of international operations of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) - after a business trip to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam this week, said that organized crime organizations of Chinese origin are targeting US citizens every day.
These are not small or isolated cases. These are sophisticated criminal businesses, well-organized, exploiting borders, technology and vulnerable people to make huge profits," he said.
In that context, Cambodia's "half-reduction" announcement is considered a noteworthy step. But the big question remains: Are the current crackdown campaigns strong enough to stop a global fraud machine operating at an unprecedented speed and scale?
