Thai troops occupying an abandoned six-story compound in O'Smach, a dusty Cambodian border town, have revealed the industrial scale of Southeast Asia's transnational fraud empire—complete with fake police stations replicating law enforcement agencies from seven countries.
The facility, discovered during December armed clashes between Thai and Cambodian forces, contained soundproofed call center booths, mock police stations for China, Australia, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, and Brazil, along with counterfeit uniforms, credentials, and replica bank branch setups, according to the South China Morning Post.
"They have good infrastructure and systems, and also the workflow and many tactics" for executing scams, Lieutenant General Teeranan Nandhakwang told reporters after international observers were invited to inspect the site.
The compound exemplifies why Cambodia has become the epicenter of what regional security experts call "slavery-as-a-service" fraud operations. Criminal syndicates—many with alleged protection from Cambodian officials—have built an estimated $12.5 billion industry trafficking workers from across Asia into compounds where they're forced to run romance scams, cryptocurrency fraud, and fake investment schemes targeting victims worldwide.
The O'Smach facility was secured after Cambodian forces used it as a military base during border clashes, revealing the extent to which these operations blend with legitimate infrastructure. Scripts found on-site were written in multiple languages, designed to impersonate police officers convincing victims they faced legal trouble unless they transferred funds immediately.
Ten countries, 700 million people, one region—and for the thousands of workers trafficked into compounds like this, ASEAN's porous borders have become a trap. The discovery underscores what diplomats have quietly warned for years: Cambodia's tolerance of these operations threatens regional security as much as any territorial dispute.
The raid follows mounting pressure from China, Thailand, and Singapore on Phnom Penh to crack down on scam compounds after high-profile rescues of trafficked citizens. Beijing estimates its citizens lose $40 billion annually to Southeast Asian fraud rings, most operating from Cambodia and Myanmar.
Whether this seizure represents genuine enforcement or merely displaces operations to less visible locations remains the question that will define ASEAN's credibility on transnational crime.
