A multibillion-dollar fraud industry has taken root across Southeast Asia, fueled partly by trafficking victims. In lawless zones along the Myanmar-Thai border, Chinese-run compounds force thousands to scam strangers online under threat of violence. Thailand has become a key transit hub, Reuters found.
Sold to gangs, forced to run online scams: inside Cambodia’s cybercrime crisis
Thousands of people from Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand have been tricked into slavery and are unable to leave a ‘living hell’
Revealed: the huge growth of Myanmar scam centres that may hold 100,000 trafficked people
Operated by crime syndicates and fostered by the country’s military junta, the number of vast complexes such as KK Park on the Thai-Myanmar border has doubled since 2021
Scamland Myanmar: how conflict and crime syndicates built a global fraud industry - ASPI
While it’s commonly understood that conflict-affected landscapes can often act as safe havens for transnational organised crime, little attention is paid to the central role that state actors play.
US and UK put sanctions on alleged Cambodia cyber-scammers and seize $15bn in bitcoin
People trafficking among allegations against six people who face measures including property freezes and travel bans
Anatomy of a scam empire: Brains and businesses behind Chen Zhi’s network centred in Cambodia
The Business Times unravels the tangled web of sanctioned collaborators, accused associates and entities, using Handshakes data
Alleged Member of ‘Notorious’ Cambodian Scam Network Bought Luxury Dubai Properties
Zhu Zhongbiao was already wanted in China on charges related to money laundering. He’s now been sanctioned by both the U.K. and U.S. in their largest ever joint action to target a multi-billion online scam network based in Cambodia.
The $11 Billion Marketplace Enabling the Crypto Scam Economy
Deepfake scam services. Victim data. Electrified shackles for human trafficking. Crypto tracing firm Elliptic found all were available for sale on an online marketplace linked to Cambodia’s ruling family.
Who are Chen Zhi and the Prince Group, accused by the US and UK of large-scale scam operations?
US treasury department has sanctioned Chinese-born Cambodian tycoon Chen Zhi – alleged mastermind of a cyber-crime empire in south-east Asia
‘Industrial-scale scams’ and a state allegedly ‘co-opted’: What the rise and fall of the Prince group means for Cambodia
Indictment and arrest of Prince Group founder Chen Zhi has sparked questions about scam industry’s alleged ties to political elite, and integrity of government crackdown
Cambodia's alleged scam group execs suspected of money laundering in Japan
Two senior executives of Prince Holding Group, a Cambodian conglomerate accused of being one of Asia's largest transnational criminal organizations, purchased luxury real estate in and around Tokyo in a possible money-laundering scheme, sources familiar with the matter said and official property records showed Thursday.
Alleged scam kingpin Chen Zhi arrives in China after extradition from Cambodia
Chen founded multinational conglomerate Prince Group that US says is front for multibillion-dollar fraud operation
Fake rooms, props and a script to lure victims: inside an abandoned Cambodia scam centre
Sprawling compound, including mock-up banks and police offices, uncovered by Thai military during border clashes
Cambodia Extradites Another Associate of Alleged ‘Criminal’ Conglomerate to China
Chinese state media reported the extradition of Li Xiong from Cambodia, alleging he is a “core backbone member” of the Prince Group. The Cambodia-based conglomerate has been accused of involvement in cyber-scams and human trafficking.
Cambodia-based scam group on U.S. sanctions list running 3 firms in Japan
A Cambodia-based Chinese firm on a U.S. sanctions list for its involvement in international fraud and human trafficking has established at least three affiliated companies in Japan since 2022, testimonies from involved individuals and documents obtained by Kyodo News showed Sunday.
Chen Zhi: Cambodia extradites alleged scam mastermind to China after arrest
Chen Zhi is charged with turning his business into a front for fraud hubs that stole from people around the world.
How Human Traffickers Force Victims Into Cyberscamming — ProPublica
Tens of thousands of people from across Asia have been coerced into defrauding people in America and around the world out of millions of dollars. Those who resist face beatings, food deprivation or worse.
