Fake profiles, real victims: Inside a Cambodian compound targeting Americans
First of 2 parts
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – “Good evening, do you have a cat or a dog?” This was a typical opening line for Bayu, a 23-year-old Indonesian man who targeted unsuspecting Americans with flirty messages. His goal was simple: get them to reply and then smoothly transition to ask for their WhatsApp number.
Sometimes he would feign familiarity, starting with a casual, “Hello, we’ve met before?” before pivoting to a seemingly innocent question, such as, “Hello, do you have any recommendations for a holiday?”
“I was told to try to seduce American men. I was told to get their WhatsApp contact.”
Bayu arrived in Phnom Penh in March 2024 and was taken to Preah Sihanouk province and then Saitaku Resort and Casino, in Samroang town in Oddar Meanchey province, near the Thai border, 500 kilometers from the capital Phnom Penh.
After one month and 15 days at work, Bayu was among hundreds of Indonesians rescued from Saitaku Resort and Casino by Cambodian police in April 2024. After contacting the Indonesian embassy, he worked with the International Justice Mission (IJM) to share his experience with a journalist, using the name Bayu for his safety.
‘Deeply concerning’
The online scam operations in Southeast Asia are a billion-dollar industry, often based in prison-like compounds. Trafficked victims are forced labor, scamming people worldwide with devastating financial and emotional consequences, according to Professor Dr. Selvakumar Manickam, director of the Cybersecurity Research Centre at Universiti Sains Malaysia.
As of end-2023, the estimated annual value of this illicit industry had reached $64 billion worldwide, with a significant portion flowing through Southeast Asia, Manickam said, adding that these operations are often housed in prison-like compounds, particularly in countries like Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and the Philippines.
“The scale of online scam operations in Southeast Asia is deeply concerning,” said Manickam.
“Compounds can hold hundreds, sometimes thousands, of workers, many of whom are victims of human trafficking. Victims are lured by false promises of legitimate jobs and then forced into perpetrating scams. The impact on victims across the globe is devastating, both financially and emotionally.”
Manickam said that online scam operations cluster in Southeast Asian hot spots with weak law enforcement and lax oversight, often near borders and within special economic zones. These areas, including Sihanoukville in Cambodia and Myawaddy in Myanmar, are frequently linked to casinos, which provide cover for these criminal syndicates.
Facebook, Instagram, X
Bayu used fake profiles of Chinese and Japanese women to lure unsuspecting Americans on social media platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter). Operating from a scam compound in Cambodia near the Thai border, Saitaku Resort and Casino, he diligently sent out dozens of messages daily.
“On a typical day, I’d send 60 messages on Facebook, 40 on Instagram and 10 on X,” Bayu confessed. His success rate varied, with responses ranging from a single reply to 20 or more.
Saitaku Resort and Casino has multiple buildings. He worked in one of them, a four-story structure dedicated entirely to his department. His floor housed three expansive rooms, filled with rows of computers and bustling with activity as about 250 Indonesians, Vietnamese and Chinese worked on them
The resort is divided into three zones: the front portion houses the casino and resort, the center serves as the operational hub for scammers; and the rear section serves as the residence.
A representative from Saitaku declined to comment when contacted for this story.
Trapped
In January 2024, Bayu, working at a retail shop in Jakarta, Indonesia, was struggling to make ends meet. With his family burdened by debt and the responsibility of supporting his younger siblings’ education, a lucrative job offer seemed like a godsend.
“My family doesn’t have a permanent house to live in yet. We took out a loan from a state bank to finance my younger sibling’s university education at that time. I have to finance two younger siblings who are still in school.”
The offer came from Satim, an Indonesian contact in Malaysia, promising a customer service position with a $1,200 salary. Satim came through a friend of his father.
Among the three locations — Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan — Bayu opted for Singapore as his preferred location, but Satim was vague about the details, insisting it was an online role.
“I chose Singapore as the location,” Bayu said, adding that Cambodia was not even on the list of countries for the job.
However, the situation took a suspicious turn when Bayu was instructed to fly to Malaysia. After a brief meeting with Satim in February 2024, he was passed to another contact and eventually flown to Phnom Penh.
From there, he was transported to Sihanoukville, Cambodia’s coastal city, where he spent one night, and the next day traveled to Saitaku Resort and Casino, a remote casino compound – a far cry from the online customer service job he envisioned.
Bayu found himself trapped in a scam operation.
“I was picked up by company people and taken to the company. It was strange when I started work because I saw a lot of computers. Only then I found out that it was a scam.”
At the compound, Bayu said he had to work 12 hours a day, sometimes more, for one month and 15 days until the police raided the place on April 15, two weeks after he reported to the Indonesian embassy in Phnom Penh. Security was tight with armed guards.
“I think it’s really extraordinary there with that kind of pressure and environment, officers carrying weapons and almost 14 hours of work, isolated and not being allowed to go out.”
At the compound, the scam was run by Chinese “leaders” who oversaw people from Indonesia, Vietnam and China. Their strategy was two-pronged.
His job was to persuade American men to give their WhatsApp contact and the leaders would take over from there. He would first lure victims into providing their WhatsApp contact information then a specialized team would take over, working to build trust and ultimately manipulating the victims into a Bitcoin investment scam.
“After I obtain their WhatsApp contact, the leaders will try to contact the American men and get them to invest in crypto. It’s scamming, not investing,” he said.
The US embassy in Cambodia estimates that Americans have lost over $100 million to scams originating in the Kingdom. This is part of a growing trend of cyber scam operations and human trafficking in the Kingdom, which has become a regional and global problem.
While Cambodian officials are unsure about the accuracy of the US embassy’s figures, they acknowledge the presence of both perpetrators and victims of scams within Cambodia.
Serious problem
Katherine M. Diop, Public Affairs officer at the US embassy in Phnom Penh, said that Cambodia’s cyber scam industry remains a serious problem, forcing many into illegal activities that have defrauded Americans of millions of dollars.
The US collaborates with Cambodia and other nations to combat human trafficking, protect victims, and prosecute traffickers and their enablers. For instance, on September 12, the US Treasury sanctioned Cambodian tycoon Ly Yong Phat and his network for their involvement in forced labor and online scams, Diop said in an email statement.
“Cambodia’s cyber scam centers remain a substantial concern. Credible reports describe tens of thousands of people being forced into online scamming operations that have resulted in the theft of hundreds of millions of dollars from US citizens.”
Diop said non-government and government reports highlight forced criminality as a significant factor of cyber scam operations and that many of those carrying out scams are labor trafficking victims exploited in forced criminality.
The US works with a variety of stakeholders around the world, including in Cambodia, to encourage governments to prevent human trafficking, protect victims, and hold accountable not only human traffickers, but also individuals who enable trafficking, she added.
In 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation Internet Crime Complaint Center received over 69,000 complaints related to cryptocurrency fraud, resulting in estimated losses of more than $5.6 billion.
The report attributes 50% of all financial fraud losses to cryptocurrency-related complaints, with investment scams being the most common type.
Clean our name
Long Dimanche, Deputy Governor of Preah Sihanouk province, one of the top hubs of scam compounds, said strong commitment from the government is needed to fight the crimes.
He added that the government has already begun a crackdown. “These online scam compounds are complex, even our experts…crimininals move one place to another. It is difficult for us to follow them.
“Even though we have already begun a lot of crackdown and the importance is the high commitment to fight this and there is already a commitment.”
He called for collaborations from the private and the public sector to help report and fight the crimes.
“We want to clean our province, our name and situation.”
The Indonesian embassy in Phnom Penh said in a statement that it engages with international organizations and NGOs, such as the International Organization for Migration, Caritas, and International Justice Mission (IJM), on issues of human trafficking and how to best serve and protect Indonesians.
It added that the embassy also regularly exchanges views with other embassies in Phnom Penh whose nationals are also impacted by similar circumstances.
The embassy said a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cooperation in Preventing and Combating Transnational Crimes and Enhancing Capacity Building was signed between the Indonesian National Police and Cambodia’s Ministry of Interior in August 2023.
“We have already conducted follow-ups to the MoU, such as the organizing of the ‘Sharing Forum on Identifying, Screening, Investigating, and Protecting Human Trafficking Victims’ in Bali in November 2024,” the embassy said. – Rappler.com