The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has commended Cambodia for its recent crackdown on online scam operations, while stressing that combating telecom and cyber fraud requires close international cooperation, according to a report by Chinese-language outlet The Cambodia China Times.
The assessment was made during a meeting on Tuesday in Phnom Penh between Chhay Sinarith, Cambodia’s senior minister in charge of special missions and head of the Secretariat for the Commission for Combating Online Scams (CCOS), and Rebecca Miller, the UNODC’s regional coordinator for trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. The two sides exchanged views on strengthening cooperation to address online scams and other forms of transnational crime.
Chhay said Cambodia highly values its long-standing partnership with the UNODC, noting that related cooperation programs cover several priority areas, including sustained support for the country’s efforts to combat online fraud. He emphasized that online scam crimes are often intertwined with serious offences such as human trafficking, forced labor, torture, murder and drug-related crimes, posing grave threats to human rights, personal freedom and human dignity.
According to Chhay, the Cambodian government attaches great importance to these issues and has continued to implement clear and stringent measures to enhance prevention, deterrence and law-enforcement action. He added that Cambodia is taking a comprehensive approach to tackling transnational crimes, including online scams, through strengthened enforcement and coordinated policy measures.
He also underlined that effective enforcement cannot be achieved by any single country acting alone. Chhay said closer coordination is needed among all parties, including enhanced information sharing, exchanges of experience and joint investigations, in order to bring those behind scam networks to justice in accordance with the law.
Miller, for her part, praised the Cambodian government and its law-enforcement agencies for their recent efforts and reaffirmed the UNODC’s commitment to deepening cooperation with Cambodia. She noted that online scams are highly transnational in nature, making it difficult for any one jurisdiction to address the problem independently, and stressed that strong international collaboration is essential.
In a previous report, the UNODC warned that Southeast Asia is facing a sharp rise in cyber-enabled fraud and organized crime, highlighting the growing role of online platforms in facilitating such activities. The report noted that large-scale cyberfraud operations in the region have increasingly intersected with online gambling activities across several jurisdictions.
