A joint police force arrested 21 suspects for cyber fraud during a February 25 raid on an online scam operation located in Ou Baek K’am commune, in the capital’s Sen Sok district.
The Secretariat of the Commission for Combating Technology Crimes (CCTC) stated that the 21 arrested suspects include 16 Chinese, 1 Indian, 2 Pakistani and 2 Nepalese nationals.
The suspects and seized evidence have been transferred to the Phnom Penh Municipal Police for legal proceedings, while the authorities are reportedly conducting an investigation to identify the ringleaders behind the operation.
Since mid-2025 Cambodia has been focused on combating online fraud. More than 8,000 foreigners have been deported and hundreds more remain in custody for their involvement. In addition, the CCTC claims that more than 210,000 others, believed to be involved, have voluntarily left the country.
Prime Minister Hun Manet, currently on an official European trip, sat down with international media outlet AFP to discuss the damage scam networks are having on the Kingdom.
He explained that online crime, or what he called the “the black economy”, destroys the honest economy.
“It has given Cambodia a bad reputation,” Manet told AFP, adding that “This is the reason why we need to clean them out.”
Regarding the arrest of Prince Bank founder Chen Zhi, who was extradited to China in January, Manet said that Cambodian authorities were unaware that Chen was an online scam “kingpin”.
He said before Chen’s arrest, he regarded as “just a businessman, contributing to the economy”.
According to US authorities, Prince Group, which operated in more than 30 countries in the real estate, financial services and consumer business sectors, was part of a multi-billion-dollar online scam and money laundering operation.
