Cambodia

Site BM04

Site BM04 was identified as an online scam site in a 2025 report by Amnesty International. They spoke with five people who had been held there and required to provide facial scans for mule bank accounts.

Published 5 Aug, 2025 | Updated 30 Oct, 2025

Location:

Poipet City, Banteay Meanchey Province
Country:

Cambodia

Background

Site BM04 was identified as an online scam site in a 2025 report by Amnesty International, which reported that as of mid-2024 the property had guards at the gates, along with other security features including a permitter wall topped with razor wire.

Amnesty spoke with three people in 2024 who claimed they had been confined at the compound before being transferred against their will to other compounds. In 2025, Amnesty spoke with another two survivors who said they were trafficked to BM04, exploited and deprived of their liberty, but later released. One said that at one point he was taken out of the compound due to a police search but later forcibly returned.

All five spent under a month at the compound before being released or transferred. They said that they were lied to during recruitment, and one reported witnessing another person being taken to a room where they were beaten. They were constantly monitored and reported seeing guards and other people with electric shock batons and believed they could not escape. Amnesty determined that based on this testimony they were ‘highly likely trafficked to the site, their identities were highly likely exploited, they were deprived of their liberty and subjected to ill-treatment’.

*Caged buildings at Site BM04, October 2025.*

At least three of those interviewed by Amnesty were Thai. All were taken to the border by their recruiters and told to cross illegally into Cambodia where people were waiting to take them to the compound. They were kept inside a dormitory room and only taken out by managers to have their faces photographed, which they believed was to open bank accounts or cryptocurrency wallets.

Huge numbers of Thai people have been recruited into scam compounds in Poipet simply so their identities can be used to set up mule accounts in this way. These accounts may be opened in Thailand, but Thai banks require facial scanning for transfers over 50,000 baht, meaning that when scam operators wish to move money from these accounts the account owner needs to be on hand to provide a facial scan.

Cyber Scam Monitor is aware of other foreigners who were being held against their will at this location as of July 2025.

The compound is located within close proximity to a border checkpoint, in clear view of border officers.