Cambodia emerges as a global leader in fight against scam centres

The signing of the Phnom Penh Declaration at an international conference by 28 countries and hosted by Cambodia provides a practical blueprint on how the international community can work together to effectively combat the scourge of online scam centres.

Cambodia recently hosted the International Conference on Combating Online Scams (ICCOS-2026), held on September 23–24 in Phnom Penh under the theme “Acting Together towards Breaking the Chain and Eradication of Online Scams”.  The event, which brought together more than 600 participants from 28 countries and seven international organisations, has put the country among the leaders in the international campaign to eradicate scam centres. The event was supported by INTERPOL, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Regional Office for Southeast Asia and the Pacific (UNODC-ROSEAP) and the Lancang-Mekong Integrated Law Enforcement and Security Cooperation Centre.

The principal outcome was the adoption of the Phnom Penh Declaration, establishing 11 areas for joint action. These include stronger international law-enforcement cooperation, breaking criminal networks rather than simply raiding individual compounds, tracing and recovering illicit proceeds, strengthening legislation, using new technology against scammers and expanding cooperation with banks, technology companies and other private-sector organisations.

Significantly, the Declaration also places greater emphasis on human trafficking. Signatories commit to improving protection for trafficked people forced to work in scam centres and applying the “non-punishment principle”, under which genuine trafficking victims should not automatically be prosecuted for the frauds they were coerced into committing. It also calls for greater intelligence sharing, mutual legal assistance and financial investigations across borders.

For Cambodia, some of the most important practical developments in the Declaration it is already implementing. During the conference, for example, the UK and Cambodia signed their first bilateral agreement specifically targeting scam-centre networks. The agreement provides for increased intelligence and data sharing, coordinated investigations, tracing of illicit financial flows and UK assistance to Cambodian law enforcement in areas including cyber investigations and digital forensics. Cambodia is also participating in INTERPOL's Task Force Shadow Storm, designed to bring investigators from different countries together and generate operational intelligence against transnational fraud networks.

At the event, Cambodia presented the audience with details on its campaign.  Cambodian authorities reported that over the previous year they had inspected or conducted operations at 832 suspected scam locations, referred 446 cases involving 3,927 suspects to the courts and deported 22,142 foreign nationals from 38 countries. Government figures released before ICCOS also said more than US$300m in scam-linked bank accounts had been frozen.

Cambodian prime minister Hun Manet told the conference that the country had dismantled all large-scale scam compounds and would not allow the country to become a “safe haven” for the industry, but  warned that syndicates were increasingly breaking up into smaller and less conspicuous operations. Cambodia is also rapidly developing and enacting further cybersecurity, cybercrime and virtual-asset legislation.

As a consequence, the next stage will likely shift increasingly from raids towards financial investigation and prosecution of organisers and facilitators. Chhay Sinarith, head of Cambodia's anti-scam commission, told Reuters following ICCOS that authorities were gathering evidence against suspected “masterminds”, owners, enablers and protectors, arguing that international cooperation was essential because much of the necessary evidence lies outside Cambodia.

The Phnom Penh Declaration is voluntary and non-legally binding, and has no common funding mechanism, implementation timetable or permanent enforcement structure yet proposed or in place. But its importance is that it provides a framework around which practical, operational cooperation can be built.

For Cambodia, hosting ICCOS also marks a significant change in its international role and how the nation is viewed in respect of the problem. Rather than being considered principally as a jurisdiction in which scam compounds operate, Phnom Penh has now positioned Cambodia as a leading country in frontline enforcement, and as an active coordination partner.

News Team