Glimpse inside scam centre in Cambodia reveals scale of operations

Abandoned desks, beds and chat guides litter 80ha compound after scammers flee

- May Wong Indochina Bureau Chief

A Thai soldier standing guard inside a room in the former scam compound in O'Smach town in Cambodia, bordering Thailand. The massive compound, occupying 80ha, or the size of up to 125 football fields, is infamous for its transnational cyberscam activities.

(ST PHOTOS: MAY WONG)

A notebook lies open on a table littered with keyboards and industrial USB hub ports with charging cables left plugged in. One entry in English reads: “I’m single and I’ve been busy with work in recent years. So I rarely make new friends. I’m from Singapore. From which country are you from?”

Another handwritten entry below continues: “In Singapore, a job like yours generally earns 1,500 to 2,000 SGD per month. How much do you earn in a month in your country?”

These entries appear to be a chat guide that a cyberscammer could use with an unsuspecting victim. Hundreds of such notebooks are found inside rooms that look like open office workspaces in a compound located in O’Smach town in Cambodia, bordering Thailand.

The massive compound, occupying 80ha, or the size of up to 125 football fields, is infamous for its transnational cyberscam activities.

On April 7, The Straits Times was among 15 news outlets taken on a tour of the compound, whose operations were crippled by Thailand’s military in December 2025 during border clashes with Cambodia.

The Thai military and Foreign Ministry had organised at least three media tours to the area, as they wanted to show the industrial scale of the organised crime operations in Cambodia.

Thailand had accused Cambodia of using the vast compound, about 400m from the border in Thailand’s Surin province, to store military weapons, launch grenade attacks into Thai soil and position snipers to target Thailand. After attacking the compound, which included two casinos, Thailand discovered that the facilities had been used as scam centres.