In Cambodia, authorities have uncovered one of the globe’s largest scam operations, featuring phony offices of the Australian Federal Police and staff dressed in replica uniforms, designed to swindle Australians out of millions.
This extensive former resort near the Thai-Cambodian frontier is thought to be a key node in an international fraud network. It ensnares victims in fake romantic entanglements and fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes, ultimately depleting their financial resources.
Criminals label this deceptive tactic as ‘pig butchering’, a method where scammers meticulously build trust with their targets over several months before making their move to pilfer everything.
During their investigation at the O’Smach facility, authorities found a counterfeit AFP office, complete with an Australian flag, fake police emblems, and uniforms, all intended to mimic official authorities and deceive overseas targets.
Additional offices imitated law enforcement agencies from countries including Singapore, China, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Brazil.
Whiteboards within the complex still bore the names and contact numbers of individuals that employees were instructed to reach out to, as part of their large-scale fraudulent operations.
Cybercrime expert Ken Gamble said the compound was part of a massive international fraud machine that continues to expand despite recent crackdowns.
‘Thousands of Australians fall victim to these scams every year,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
Meet the kingpin who’s been scamming your money in the world’s largest online fraud operation. The US-indicted scam tycoon Chen Zhi is hooded and shackled as he’s led off a plane in Beijing in January
Above, one of the fake offices inside the compound on the Thai-Cambodian border where a massive scamming operation has now been busted
An Australian flag in the centre where trafficked workers were forced to operate (left), and (right) a fake Indonesian police shirt inside a soundproofed booth in the former Cambodian resort
The complex near the Cambodian-Thai border in the town of O’Smach was uncovered when workers revolted last year against their overlords and tried to escape armed with metal rods.
‘It was happening before Covid, continued through Covid, and it’s only getting bigger. You find your ‘pig’, groom them, then butcher them by taking their money.’
Inside the abandoned buildings, investigators found soundproofed booths where trafficked workers allegedly spent long shifts making scam calls, along with scripts in multiple languages designed to trick victims around the world.
Initially focused on Chinese-speaking targets, crime syndicates have since expanded operations globally, stealing tens of billions of dollars annually.
Mr Gamble said a single operation like O’Smach could target victims in up to 75 countries, including Australia.
Workers inside these compounds are sometimes willing participants, but many are trafficked foreigners forced to work under threats of violence.
Royal Thai Police General Thatchai Pitaneelaboot described O’Smach as the largest scam compound authorities had ever been able to gather evidence from.
The operation was exposed after around 60 foreign workers, mostly Pakistani and Nepalese nationals, revolted against their bosses in early 2025 and attempted to escape armed with metal rods.
Thai troops later seized the site following weeks of armed clashes along the border, with officials saying the compound reflects Cambodia’s booming illicit scam industry built on trafficked labour.
Trafficked workers were forced to sit in soundproofed booths and make thousands of phone calls around the world to try to scam money from victims via romance or cryptocurrency ruses
A journalist tries on a counterfeit police shirt in the fake police office set up in the O’Smach buildings to facilitate the global scam operation.
Workers slept in dorms crammed with bunk beds and were poorly paid for long hours while trying to milk people around the world of their money. A Thai police officer in one of the offices used for the international romance and cryptocurrency scams operated by kingpin Chen Zhi.
The raid is part of a wider regional crackdown, including operations in the Cambodian border city of Bavet where more than 2,000 foreign nationals were detained in another online fraud bust.
Just last month, hundreds fled a suspected cyberfraud hub in Sihanoukville following the arrest and deportation of alleged scam kingpin Chen Zhi.
Chen, indicted in the United States over the multibillion-dollar fraud empire, was shown hooded and shackled as he was led from a plane in Beijing after being extradited to China, which has since ordered the liquidation of a bank linked to his network.
Chinese state media labelled him the leader of a major transnational gambling and fraud syndicate.
Mr Gamble said Chen’s transfer to China rather than the US could mean he faces execution.
China recently executed 11 members of another organised crime family linked to scam operations and the killing of trafficked workers attempting to escape.
