Thailand reframes Cambodia fight as also war on scammers

Thailand’s army has recast its deadly clash with Cambodia as a battle against scam centres, adding a new motive for bombing runs across the border that it says are aimed at rooting out cybercriminals.

- Bloomberg

Calling the strikes a “war against the scam army,” a military division involved in the border fight said this week it’s on the frontline against the global threat of transnational crime syndicates, which operate across neighbouring Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

Bangkok's new tone draws together two simmering crises in Southeast Asia: the border war between the neighbors that has killed dozens and displaced half a million people and a sprawling scam ecosystem that has swindled billions of dollars primarily in so-called pig-butchering and call-center schemes.