Scammed into scamming: The brutal reality facing Koreans in Cambodia

When 46 young South Koreans appeared into a Seoul courtroom last week, many barely older than college students, the case felt painfully close to home for families across the country.

Most of the defendants are men in their 20s, accused of working in online scam operations run out of Cambodia. Their trial has reopened a national wound—and drawn fresh attention to a vast, largely hidden cybercrime industry stretching across Southeast Asia.

The courtroom scenes come amid an urgent effort by South Korean authorities to bring their citizens home. Since mid-October, 107 South Koreans have been repatriated from Cambodia. Officials believe more than 1,000 others may still be there, some lured by promises of good jobs, others trapped and unable to leave.

Public anger boiled over after the death of a 22-year-old South Korean college student whose story horrified the nation. He was reportedly enticed to Cambodia with the prospect of work, then forced into a scam center. Days later, his body was found bearing signs of extreme abuse. A Cambodian court said an autopsy showed he died from “severe torture,” with bruises and injuries covering his body—raising fears that he was beaten to death.

For many parents, the case struck a terrifying chord: this could have been any young person searching for opportunity.

President Lee Jae Myung called the tragedy a stark reminder of the government’s responsibility to protect its people. “The government’s greatest responsibility is to safeguard the lives and safety of our people,” he said. “We must protect the victims and swiftly repatriate those involved in these incidents back to Korea.”

Following the money

Beyond the human toll, authorities are now targeting the financial machinery behind the scams. South Korea has joined the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore in sanctioning Cambodia’s Prince Holding Group, whose founder is accused of overseeing large-scale fraud operations across Southeast Asia—allegations the company denies.

“What’s different now is the determination to follow the money,” said Brian Hanley, Asia-Pacific director of the Global Anti-Scam Alliance. “Freezing assets and imposing sanctions is starting to have an impact.”

A system built on exploitation

Behind every scam is a person—often a victim themselves—forced to sit at a computer for endless hours. Southeast Asia has become a global hub for these operations. The United Nations estimated in 2023 that more than 200,000 people were trafficked into countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos after being promised legitimate work. Instead, they ended up in heavily guarded compounds in remote, lawless border regions.

Some of these scam centers sit near active conflict zones. In recent months, clashes between Thai and Cambodian forces have reportedly included strikes on suspected scam compounds. In Myanmar, similar operations are believed to fund both sides of the country’s civil war.

Many workers, often from across Asia, are coerced into targeting victims in Western countries through online shopping fraud, fake investment schemes and romance scams. One particularly cruel method is known as “pig butchering,” where scammers slowly build trust—sometimes posing as romantic partners—before convincing victims to hand over their savings through fake cryptocurrency platforms. “This is human trafficking and modern slavery,” Hanley said. “It’s a human rights crisis—but it’s also a national security issue that affects everyone.”

According to GASA’s State of the Scams 2025 report featured on DW.com, an estimated $442 billion was lost to scams worldwide in the past year alone. More than half of adults globally said they encountered at least one scam attempt during that period—many far more.

Why the US feels it most

Americans have become prime targets. The FBI estimates Southeast Asian scam networks steal $9 billion to $10 billion from US victims each year. GASA places the figure even higher, at $64.8 billion, with the average victim losing more than $1,000—and encountering scam attempts almost daily.

In response, US authorities launched the Scam Center Strike Force in November, bringing together multiple agencies to dismantle scam hubs and prosecute those funding them. “My office will not stand by as these enterprises empty out the bank accounts of hardworking Americans,” said US Attorney Jeanine Pirro.

The US has since partnered with the UK to impose sanctions, while countries like Australia and Singapore have strengthened laws and cross-border cooperation.

Jacob Sims, a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Asia Center, said the issue has gained unprecedented political attention in Washington. “A year ago, there was one sanction,” he said. “Now there are many prominent names sanctioned, and dozens of bills in Congress.”

Still, he warned that cuts to US-funded programs monitoring human trafficking in Cambodia and along the Thai-Myanmar border have weakened the overall response. “There’s momentum,” Sims said, “but it’s not yet a strategy that matches the scale of the threat.”

The geopolitical reality

Many of the region’s largest scam operations are believed to be run by Chinese criminal networks. China has helped shut down some scam centers in Cambodia and Myanmar—but largely those targeting Chinese citizens.

A recent report to the US Congress found little direct evidence linking these networks to the Chinese government, but warned that their activities fuel corruption, violence and instability across the region.

Even as evidence mounts, governments including South Korea and the US have largely avoided confronting Cambodia or China directly, choosing instead to pursue criminal networks themselves.

“As long as Cambodia offers just enough cooperation to stay relevant geopolitically, Western governments have been willing to tolerate scams on an industrial scale,” Sims said. “It’s still seen as a chessboard in the larger China-versus-the-West game.”

For the families mourning lost children, and for those still waiting for loved ones to come home, the stakes could not be clearer. This is no longer just a story about online fraud—it is about young lives cut short, people trapped far from home, and a global criminal system that continues to grow unless it is confronted head-on.