Cambodia has a new law targeting scams, but is it just another ‘paper reform’?

Cambodia’s first law targeting scam centres, passed after mounting international pressure over the country’s massive fraud and trafficking economy, may do little to curb it unless authorities go after the officials and networks that have long enabled it, analysts have warned. Approved by parliament on Friday, the law takes aim at an industry estimated to generate up to US$19 billion annually and to have trafficked as many as 200,000 workers into compounds across the country. Justice Minister Keut Rith said the law would strengthen the “cleaning operation” taking place across the country and ensure the centres did not return after crackdowns. “This law is strict like the fishing net, strict to ensure we don’t have online scams any more in Cambodia, strict to serve the interest of the Cambodian nation and people,” he said. The new law will be signed by Cambodia’s king before it takes effect. Under the law, those found guilty of online scams face two to five years in prison and fines of up to US$125,000. For those convicted of scams conducted by gangs or against multiple victims, sentences can reach up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to US$250,000. There will also be penalties for those convicted of money laundering, gathering victims’ data, or recruiting scammers. Previous suspects have been charged with offences including recruitment for exploitation, aggravated fraud and money laundering. Jason Tower, a senior expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, said a key gap in the law was the lack of explicit provisions on corruption to address the role traditionally played by a wide range of officials and even powerful members of the senate. These officials, he said, had enabled and organised scam operations in the country. “Without major changes in oversight over the officials tasked with implementation of the law, it is unlikely that the introduction of such a law will result in major changes on the ground,” said Tower, who works on organised crime, security and illicit economies in Southeast Asia. Penalties under the new law were low compared to those in other countries, Tower said, citing Chinese law which provides for stiffer punishments such as life in prison for cases involving more than 500,000 yuan (US$72,500). In neighbouring Laos and Thailand, there are laws providing for life imprisonment for “severe economic crimes”. Cambodia’s new law also failed to detail conditions for court seizure of assets belonging to those convicted of perpetrating cyber scams, or how those assets might be used, for example, to provide restitution to scam victims, Tower noted. Over the longer term, another key question for Cambodia, according to Tower, is the extent to which its courts can try cases related to major China-linked criminals involved in cyber scams and related crimes. It was possible, he said, that these high-level criminals would continue to be extradited to China, as in the case of Chen Zhi and Li Xiong. The two men were extradited earlier this year due to their alleged leadership roles in a massive transnational criminal syndicate involved in global online scams and multibillion-dollar money laundering. Both China-born men had previously obtained Cambodian citizenship, which Phnom Penh revoked before their extradition. Jacob Sims, a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Asia Centre examining the political economy of transnational crime in Southeast Asia, said over the past few years, Cambodian authorities had treated human-trafficking victims as criminals to demonstrate “prosecutorial effectiveness”. “Despite significant evidence, the government has consistently failed to identify victims of trafficking as such,” he said. These vulnerable individuals were forced to work at the bottom of “this lucrative state-abetted industry”, he said, while the real perpetrators “enjoy the absolute protection of the party-state and are thus unlikely to face meaningful accountability”. Operating out of vast heavily guarded compounds, scam centres in Cambodia have evolved into a multibillion-dollar illicit economy, estimated to generate between US$12.5 billion and US$19 billion annually, accounting for roughly half of the country’s formal gross domestic product. An estimated 100,000 to 200,000 people from more than 50 countries have been trafficked into these centres, lured by fake high-paying job offers and then subjected to “cyber-slavery” where they are forced to carry out scams under threat of torture and starvation. Following intense pressure from countries particularly China and the United States, Cambodia began a major crackdown, closing nearly 200 centres and deporting over 11,000 workers by early 2026. Sims said the law was unlikely to change the underlying dynamics and “amounts to just one more paper reform”. He added that the primary criticisms towards Cambodia were not the lack of laws but the entire legal and broader institutional environment. “[This] has been captured by opaque criminal actors with evidenced ties to the highest levels of the ruling Cambodian People’s Party,” Sims said. Sophal Ear, associate professor at Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School of Global Management, said online scam operations’ revenues far exceeded the fines or prison terms outlined in the law. “Deterrence will depend less on the severity of penalties and more on the certainty of enforcement,” Ear said. The law’s effectiveness would also depend on systematic application and whether it reached the networks enabling scam operations, rather than focusing only on lower-level actors, Ear said. Challenges, he noted, included coordination across agencies, enforcement capacity and the need to address entrenched interests that might have benefited from scam operations. Ear warned that the scam economy was more than just a law enforcement issue, as it involved governance and economic transition problems. “[It] has been deeply embedded in certain local areas, and dismantling it creates short-term economic disruption for people who were indirectly dependent on it,” he said. “The longer-term question is whether Cambodia can sustain a credible clean-up effort while managing local economic fallout and restoring investor and tourist confidence.”

Cambodia has a new law targeting scams, but is it just another ‘paper reform’?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Analysts warn the lack of provisions addressing the role officials and networks play in enabling scams may limit the law’s effectiveness

Analysts warn the lack of provisions addressing the role officials and networks play in enabling scams may limit the law’s effectiveness