Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet recently announced that the country had eliminated large-scale scam compounds, which had made it notorious globally for cybercrime. The declaration was made during a conference focused on combating cyberscams, held in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Interpol. During the event, reporters were shown several abandoned scam sites to illustrate the government's efforts in shutting them down. This is not the first time the government has made such a claim, having previously announced success in August after closing hundreds of similar facilities. Hun Manet emphasized that while criminal groups might attempt to break up into smaller, more decentralized operations, law enforcement is prepared to identify and dismantle these new threats. However, some experts and other governments argue that Cambodia has not done enough to tackle the underlying criminal structures that enabled the scam industry to thrive. They have called for more robust legal action against those involved in the scam operations. Mark Taylor, a former head of an anti-trafficking program in Cambodia and an anti-trafficking consultant, noted that while the government has closed most of the large scam compounds, it has not made significant progress in dismantling the criminal organizations behind them. He also pointed out that there has been little effort to investigate or penalize Cambodian business and political elites who may have protected or profited from these illegal activities. U.S. Representative Brian Mast, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has called for potential sanctions against key Cambodian political figures, including Deputy Prime Minister Neth Savoeun, over alleged ties to scam operations. The rise of cyberscams accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, with victims losing tens of billions of dollars to these schemes. Southeast Asia, particularly countries with weaker law enforcement, has seen a surge in scam centers. According to the UNODC, estimated global losses from these scams ranged from $88.3 billion to $114.1 billion in 2025.