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Justice Minister Keut Rith says the law aimed to enhance the \u201ccleaning operation\u201d across the country.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 3 Apr 2026<\/span>3 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Cambodia\u2019s National Assembly has approved its first law targeting scam centres accused of defrauding foreigners of billions of dollars amid rising pressure to curb these illicit operations.<\/p>\n Justice Minister Keut Rith on Friday said the law aimed to enhance the \u201ccleaning operation\u201d taking \u2060place across the country and ensure the centres do not return after the crackdown.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cThis law is strict like the fishing net, strict to ensure we don\u2019t have the \u2060online scams any more in Cambodia, strict in order to serve the interests of the Cambodian nation and people,\u201d he told reporters, adding that the problem had impacted the economy, tourism and investment.<\/p>\n The passage of the legislation aimed to \u201csend a message to cyberscammers that Cambodia is not a place to do scams\u201d, he said. The legislation will now go to Cambodia\u2019s king for a final signature.<\/p>\n The law lays out punishments of two to five \u200cyears in prison and fines of up to $125,000 for those convicted of online scams.<\/p>\n Sentences for those convicted of scams conducted by gangs or against many victims can be up to 10 years in prison and as much as $250,000 in fines. It also outlines penalties for those convicted of money laundering, gathering victims\u2019 data or recruiting scammers.<\/p>\n Ringleaders of cyberscam centres that engage in human trafficking, detentions and torture will now face prison sentences of up to 20 years and a fine of up to $500,000 under the law.<\/p>\n Cambodia has not previously had legislation specifically targeting scams although suspects have been charged with offences like recruitment for exploitation, aggravated \u2060fraud and money laundering.<\/p>\n The passage of the law comes after widespread condemnation from rights groups and \u2060sanctions and indictments by governments around the world as Cambodia is among the countries accused of being hotbeds of cyberscams.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Britain sanctioned the operators of what it described as the largest fraud complex in Cambodia and an online cryptocurrency \u2060marketplace used to trade stolen personal data. The complex is part of what the British government called a fast-growing network of scam centres in Southeast Asia where workers \u2060are confined in guarded compounds and forced to commit online \u2060fraud.<\/p>\n The US Department of State said last year that \u201cofficial complicity, including at senior levels, inhibited effective law enforcement action against trafficking crimes\u201d in Cambodia, which has denied suggestions its government is complicit.<\/p>\n A joint statement by United Nations experts in May said \u201chundreds of thousands of people of various nationalities are trapped and forced to carry out online fraud\u201d.<\/p>\n Several countries have enacted anti-cyberscam laws to combat the rise of online fraud, romance and cryptocurrency scams with con artists in Singapore facing 24 strokes of the cane in serious cases.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Justice Minister Keut Rith says the law aimed to enhance the \u201ccleaning operation\u201d across the country. Published On 3 Apr 20263 Apr 2026 Cambodia\u2019s National Assembly has approved its first law targeting scam centres accused of defrauding foreigners of billions of dollars amid rising pressure to curb these illicit operations. Justice Minister Keut Rith on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
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