Cambodians Have Lost More Than $26 Million to Cross-Border Online Scams, Police Chief Says

Cambodian nationals have lost an estimated $26.2 million to online fraud groups since 2025, according to National Police Commissioner Sar Theth. The figures show that Cambodia is not only a base for scam operations aimed at foreigners, but is increasingly seeing its own citizens fall victim.

Speaking at the International Conference on Combating Online Scams (ICCOS) on September 24, Theth reported that police had logged 1,136 complaints from Cambodian citizens in 2025, with losses totaling roughly $4.7 million. Of those cases, only 51 had been resolved.

Over the first eight months of this year, authorities received an additional 1,084 complaints involving about $21.5 million in losses, of which just 42 had been settled, he said.

Theth did not explain how the victims were deceived, nor did he clarify whether those behind the schemes were Cambodian or foreign nationals.

Challenges in Fighting the Crimes

Theth pointed to the fast-moving technology and telecommunications tools used by criminal groups, along with the difficulty of tracing illicit money flows, as key obstacles that make recovering stolen funds a complicated task. He added that public awareness of these risks remains low.

He also noted that police have generally only managed to detain low-level operators, since the leaders of major scam networks are based overseas. This, he said, makes it hard to dismantle the operations at their source.

Authorities have faced further complications in identifying some detained suspects whose travel documents had expired, delaying repatriation or deportation and forcing Cambodia to shoulder the associated costs.

Theth urged stronger collaboration between nations and international bodies to "break the chain and combat these borderless crimes."