Over the past decade, Southeast Asia has emerged as a hot spot for cyber fraud and illegal online gambling operations. These operations are often housed in compounds that have been set up to accommodate dozens of companies. In some cases hotels and condos have been rented out to operators, or casino facilities have been converted to accommodate them. Operations are controlled by organised crime groups, often with links to local elites, or at least with their tacit approval.

For several years, the conditions in these operations were not publicly known. However, around 2018 stories of horrific abuses began to emerge with increasing frequency on Chinese social media accounts. These testimonies told of people being smuggled to Southeast Asian countries or duped into working in compounds that they could not leave. Initially, it was mostly Chinese citizens who were recruited to work in these operations, but quickly people from other countries in the region and beyond began to be drawn in.

While many do enter these online industries willingly, many do not. Regardless of how people find their way into the compounds, most often they are not allowed to leave without paying a substantial ransom, sometimes in the tens of thousands of dollars. Overwhelming evidence of torture, violence, and brutality within online operations has now become ubiquitous.

As the industry has expanded and the stories of scam victims and survivors of the compounds have continued to emerge, courageous journalists have sought to expose the issue, and volunteer rescue teams have worked under often perilous conditions to help get people out. Cyber Scam Monitor was established to draw together the increasing wealth of information that is now out there and supplements this with our own investigations. Our website is structured as a map comprising project-specific profiles that document the location of reported online crime operations, alleged abuses perpetrated there, and which actors and companies are known to be linked to them. The site content will initially focus on Cambodia, but it will later expand to cover other countries.

The project was envisioned and developed by a collective of people from various backgrounds, including individuals from the human rights, humanitarian, academic, and media fields. Due to the sensitive nature of the project, and the involvement of dangerous criminal elements and powerful state-linked actors, all contributors are anonymous. The team was motivated to create this platform after several years of watching online crime networks take root and the stories of harrowing abuse expand across Southeast Asia.

For years, government and law enforcement officials in countries hosting online crime operations denied their existence or downplayed media reports and victim testimonies. The existence of the industry has since been acknowledged, and various law enforcement actions have taken place across the region. However, the industry is still thriving.

Even where operators have been raided or shut down, accountability remains elusive: very few ringleaders have faced charges and few officials have faced public censure for allowing these activities to go on within the areas they administer. Where operations have been raided or closed down in anticipation of police action, often they reopen later or simply relocate.

Cyber Scam Monitor seeks to keep these activities in the public eye, document abuses, and help to expose those who have enabled them. This industry has been able to thrive by operating in the shadows, and the only way it will be eradicated is by shining a light upon it.

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