A crackdown on the online scam epicenter of the world

0:00Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theschmidt.org. Today on State of the World, a crackdown on the online scam epicenter of the world.

0:24You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. I'm Greg Dixon. Cambodia, along with neighboring Laos, have become the global center for online scams. If you've been targeted for bogus investment opportunities, romance scams, or other digital cons, it might have originated there. The U.S. Treasury Department says Americans were scammed for$10 billion in 2024 alone. And this is a global problem. The total worldwide is estimated to be four times that. So many countries have had enough, and they're forcing consequences.

1:03Michael Sullivan reports. In October, the Cambodia-based Chinese-born Chen Zhe was indicted by the U.S. government for wire fraud and money laundering. The U.S. also sanctioning more than 100 others in what it and the U.K. called the, quote, largest action ever targeting cybercriminal and fraud networks in Southeast Asia. The U.S. also seized roughly$15 billion in Bitcoin from Chen's Prince Holding Group. Given that he had consolidated such deep ties with top Cambodian elites, Chen's arrest is significant. That's Jason Tower at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. Along with the Bitcoin, the U.K.

1:41also seized several swanky properties in London. The U.S. sought Chen's extradition, but Cambodia balked, Chen's simply too well-connected to, and his businesses entwined with many in the Cambodian elite, including Prime Minister Hun Manet. But last month, Cambodia abruptly gave him up, just not to the U.S.

2:06Chinese state television showed a hooded and handcuffed Chen on a flight from Cambodia to Beijing. China is Cambodia's main political patron, but its citizens, too, have been big-time victims of the scamming operations. And it's put its foot down.

2:24Cambodia's Prime Minister, Hon Minet, recently said that online scams damage Cambodia's image and threaten national security. And the Interior Minister announced an April deadline for the scammers to be gone, prompting a government offensive.

2:42Cambodian TV recently showcased tape of a raid on a scam centre in Kampot province, one of hundreds they say they've shut down in the past few weeks. with pictures showing workers fleeing as police arrived. Some of those fleeing were duped into working in the centers, their passports seized, with some workers abused or even tortured. Now many line up in front of embassies like Indonesias and the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh trying to get home. Amnesty International calls the situation a humanitarian crisis. What we're seeing in Cambodia right now is real disruption. You have compounds that are emptying.

3:22There are thousands of people leaving. You're even seeing some arrests. Jacob Sims is a visiting fellow at Harvard's Asia Center focusing on transnational crime in Southeast Asia. But what this is not is reform. What's happening in Cambodia right now looks far, far less like the dismantling of a criminal economy and far more like elite risk management under serious international pressure. Pressure from the U.S., U.K., China, and South Korea that includes sanctions, pressure from international businesses reluctant to invest, given Cambodia's increasingly common nickname, Scambodia, forcing scam operators to adapt to keep the money flowing.

4:03So you can shed some workforce, give some people up for a rest and move. You just have to be ready to do it. And a lot of them, I think, with sanctions and the pressure that's been building have been doing that. They've been preparing for this day. That's Jeremy Douglas at the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime, downsizing, he says, is one example, discreetly operating out of houses instead of compounds to avoid suspicion. Jason Tower agrees, and he says, We're seeing increasingly a global spread of this activity with some of the China-linked scam syndicates that have been operating in Southeast Asia, moving increasingly to places like Dubai, moving into Sri Lanka, Bangladesh.

4:43So you're seeing where they're continuing to try to exploit new geographies and become embedded in a wider and wider range of states around the world. It's like a global game of whack-a-mole, one the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime hopes to tackle at a global conference in Vienna next month. For NPR News, I'm Michael Sullivan in Chiang Rai, Thailand.

5:09That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.

5:35President Trump says that he's thinking about a possible strike on Iran. In Congress, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia is moving to ensure that President Trump cannot do that alone. Succeed or fail, we shouldn't be at war without a vote. And so members of Congress should be held accountable. Listen for more on Consider This on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Get in, loser. We're taking a trip under the sea to a junkyard. I've done cobra helicopters. We've seen old washer machines. Does a second strip boat count. This junk helped create one of the world's largest artificial reefs. And a new home for many marine animals.

6:14But how did our trash become another fish's treasure? Find out on Shortwave. Listen in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.