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Nikkei Asia
a day ago
- Business
- Nikkei Asia
Cambodia strongly rebuts report on growing cybercrime sector
BANGKOK -- The Cambodian government has lambasted a report alleging the kingdom is the regional epicenter of a growing online crime industry in which mostly Chinese syndicates control up to 350,000 people and generate annual revenues estimated at between $50 billion and $75 billion. Authored by Jacob Sims, a visiting fellow at Harvard University's Asia Center, the 68-page report published last month said: "As of early 2025, Cambodia is a top location -- if not the premier global center -- for large-scale, sophisticated scamming operations."
South China Morning Post
25-05-2025
- South China Morning Post
Cambodia is home to world's most powerful criminal network: report
A newly released report has named senior Cambodian political figures as central players in what it describes as possibly the world's most powerful criminal network – a multibillion-dollar, Southeast Asia-based cybercrime industry that experts warn may soon become 'too big to fail'. Written by transnational crime and regional security specialist Jacob Sims, the report says Cambodia is becoming the centre of an exploding global scam economy driven primarily by Chinese organised crime. It warns that the scale of illegal activities threatens global economic and political stability, and is thriving through state-sanctioned corruption. 'While Myanmar and Laos boast towering scam economies, one country stands above its peers in terms of likely scale and durability: Cambodia,' the report concluded. 'Cambodia is likely the absolute global epicentre of next-gen transnational fraud in 2025 and is certainly the country most primed for explosive growth going forward.' Published by the US-funded Humanity Research Consultancy, Sims' report follows a chilling assessment by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which last month expressed alarm at the exponential growth of Southeast Asia-based transnational crime with its reach having extended to the Pacific, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South America. Southeast Asian-based crime syndicates have quickly evolved from synthetic drug production to unregulated casinos and online gambling, and are now world leaders in 'industrial scale' cyber-enabled fraud and scams enabled by networks of human traffickers, money launderers, technology experts, and data brokers, according to the UNODC. It added the 'professionalisation' of recruitment continued to attract countless, often talented but underemployed, young people from more than 60 countries through deceptive job offers, noting some became willing participants in illegal activities but many end up essentially as slaves subject to extortion and ransom demands, and coercion ranging from beatings to torture and even murder.
ABC News
18-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Report finds Cambodian government active in one of the world's most powerful criminal networks
A landmark report has accused Cambodia's ruling party of actively running what could be the world's most powerful criminal network - fuelling a multi-billion dollar cyber-scam industry built on human trafficking and state protection. The US government-funded study warns that Southeast Asia's scam economy - centred in Cambodia - now rivals the scale of entire national economies. And given how lucrative and powerful they've become, the crime syndicates are now almost quote "too big to fail." The report names senior Cambodian officials, including relatives of the Cambodian Prime Minister, as central players in a vast transnational enterprise - whose reach and impunity pose a growing threat to global security and regional stability. Guest: Jacob Sims, report author, and visiting fellow at Harvard University's Asia Centre Producer: Anne Barker
