Inside the Sihanoukville Scam Compounds: A Six-Month Investigation
Trafficked workers, Chinese syndicate money, and a Cambodian city rebuilt around cyber-fraud. What the numbers actually show.
The Compounds
They call it "pig butchering." The industry calls it a growth market. The UN calls it modern slavery.
The scale
A joint UNODC/Interpol assessment estimates 220,000+ people are held in cyber-scam compounds across Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos. Sihanoukville alone hosts dozens of walled campuses, many built on the ruins of the 2019 casino boom.
How the pipeline works
1. Fake job ads target Malaysia, Kenya, India, the Philippines. 2. Workers arrive in Phnom Penh, are driven to Sihanoukville, passports confiscated. 3. Scripts, KPIs, quotas — and violence for those who fall short.
Who profits
Chinese-syndicate leaseholders operate from towers with Cambodian licensees on paper. Follow the electricity contracts and the ownership fog thins.
What isn't working
Cambodia's 2023 crackdown produced photo-op raids and few prosecutions. Meanwhile, the compounds moved north — to Bavet, Poipet, and increasingly across the border into Myanmar's Shwe Kokko.
Full methodology and source list available on request.
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