When a Malaysian couple, Danny* and his fiancé, Christine, finally broke free from an online scam group in Cambodia, they believed reaching their embassy would mean safety. Instead, they say they were given a list of fees to pay before any help could begin, leaving them stranded, undocumented and without protection.
Their experience highlights both the human cost of Cambodia’s sprawling online scam industry — a sector documented by human rights groups as rife with trafficking and forced labour — and the gaps in formal protection mechanisms for victims once they flee.
Lured With False Promises of Legitimate Work
On 12 December 2024, Danny and Christine, who asked that their surnames not be published, were recruited through a personal connection. A Malaysian friend assured them they would be working legally in a casino in Cambodia, earning USD 1,900 per month, with visas, work permits, accommodation and food fully provided.
“We met her in Malaysia,” Danny said. “She told us that we will actually work in a casino based in Cambodia. She showed us an offer letter, she showed us the salary, she showed us the pictures.”
The couple liked what they saw. Less than two weeks after they were recruited, they landed at Sihanoukville International Airport and were taken to accommodation provided by the company.
Soon after arrival, their passports were taken by management, who said the documents were required to process visas and work permits.
A few days later, the couple say they were instructed to begin work — not in a casino, but in an online scam operation. Despite reservations, they became fraudsters.
“We didn’t like it at all. We really struggled a lot,” said Danny. “But we were more disappointed with ourselves, actually. We were very upset. But we saw a lot of other Malaysians were doing that job; they are very happy and enjoy scamming people.”
The pair were given a script by their handler and called up unsuspecting people. They tried to convince their victims that someone had used their identity to take out a RM50,000 (about USD 12,000) loan and three months of payments had not been made.
“If they agreed to talk to the police officers, we transferred them to line 2,” Danny said.
He said the boss of that operation was a Malaysian-Chinese man in his 20s who oversaw at least 23 workers. There were 15 Malaysians, while the rest were from China, Taiwan and Indonesia.
Attempting to Leave — and Being Blocked
An Amnesty International investigation found that people lured into scam compounds with job promises are frequently coerced into illegal activities under threat of violence — a situation that amounts to forced labour and, in many cases, slavery. A report from the human rights group published in June 2025, identified at least 53 scamming compounds in Cambodia, where victims were held in conditions resembling long-term captivity and subjected to physical abuse.
Other civil society groups have found that techniques like passport confiscation, deceptive recruitment and forced fraud work are common features in Cambodia’s scam industry.
Danny and Christine were not subjected to physical torture but the mental and emotional impact of working inside the operation was severe.
“We started work at 8 o’clock in the morning and finished at 4 o’clock in the afternoon’” said Danny. Then they would have to do six to seven hours of training, fine-tuning what action they should take if someone fell for the scam. “It was mentally exhausting, and we also had to undergo training sessions,” Danny added.
As Christine’s health declined in January 2025, Danny approached management about returning to Malaysia.
“He said if we wanted to leave, we had to pay a penalty,” Danny said.
After the company shut down on 28 January, they were offered the same job at another location near the Cambodia-Vietnam borderplace. Danny said they accepted that job because they did not have any food to eat and Cristine’s health had worsened.
But their situation just got worse “We asked our boss to return our passport but he said we had to pay for the allowance he gave, the bed and bedsheets. That all came up to $374 USD.”
Reached the Embassy — but Not the Help They Needed
With no documents and no way to pay, the couple travelled to Phnom Penh on 24 February 2025 to seek assistance from the Malaysian Embassy. They could easily make the journey as the scam operators allowed them out from time to time, unlike in other scam compounds where workers are kept captive.
The couple told embassy officials that their passports had been confiscated by employers and that they had been forced to work in an online scam. According to the couple, the response focused on procedure rather than protection.
Danny said the officer at the embassy told him and Cristine that they would need to file a police report declaring their passports missing. To do so, they would need to pay more fees. After obtaining the police report, they could apply for emergency travel documents — also at a cost. They would then need to pay Cambodian immigration overstay fines and buy flight tickets by themselves before being allowed to leave the country.
They were not offered emergency shelter, financial assistance, legal support, or referral to anti-trafficking services. At the time, they had no money to pay the required fees and no place to stay.
“The embassy told us to file a police report and pay at least USD 200 just to get the report. Only after that, they said, they would prepare the emergency passport documents — and we have to pay the overstay fine.”
For them, the embassy offered instructions — but no immediate help.
“They did not help us at all.” Danny said.
Shelter and Assistance Came From the Church and NGOs
With no options left, the couple stayed briefly at a guesthouse in Phnom Penh before seeking shelter at the church, before moving to a shelter which provided accommodation, assistance and the plane tickets.
Danny said: “We stayed at a shelter [for] about two months.” Staff at the shelter paid for the overstay charges. All up, the pair were given about 2,200 USD.
NGOs Say the Case Is Typical
Bun Chenda, Senior Program Officer at the Center for Alliance for Development and Human Rights (CENTRAL), said his organization had supported victims of various nationalities after they escaped or were rescued from online scam operations, including Malaysians, Indonesians, Filipinos, and Bangladeshis.
Most embassies have not been very responsive,” he said. Some diplomatic missions did not provide any support at all, not even shelter, food, financial assistance, or transportation to enable them to return to their home countries.
“The only embassy we have seen performing somewhat better is the Philippines Embassy,” Bun Chenda said, adding the embassy had “shown more active responses, rescue efforts, and communication compared to the other embassies.”
“Many victims are treated as immigration offenders instead of trafficking victims,” said a Phnom Penh-based NGO caseworker. “They are asked to pay fees they cannot afford, which effectively traps them in Cambodia.”
On December 4, 2025, The Straits Times published a report on a Malaysian national who was a victim of forced labor in the online scam industry in Cambodia. The newspaper reported that Muhammad Syafiq Pubalan Abdullah successfully escaped from the clutches of the criminal syndicate after his wife paid more than US$1,400 as ransom.
Muhammad, who is in his 40s, recounted that a friend he had known for 12 years persuaded him to open a Malaysian restaurant in Cambodia. Trusting this friend, he traveled from Malaysia to Bangkok, where a driver picked him up and took him to Phnom Penh.
During the first week of work at the scam compound, he was beaten every day. At least 700 other Malaysian victims, aged between 17 and 35, were also subjected to torture and frequent beatings.
According to Muhammad, while being forced to work as a scammer, the criminal group required them to impersonate officers from Singapore’s cybersecurity agencies and question victims about fake job advertisements in Malaysia, as well as pose as officials requesting victims’ identity card numbers to file complaints. He said that during his time there, one Singaporean victim was scammed out of S$67,000.
Police Response
Touch Sokhak, Deputy Spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, rejected claims that victims of online scam networks are required to pay money when filing police reports. He said Cambodian authorities consistently cooperate and intervene whenever there are complaints from victims and embassies.
He added: “Even if they have no documents whatsoever, we do not impose fines for overstaying. We only provide protection in terms of rights, mental well-being, material support, and basic living needs, while awaiting coordination of procedures with their embassies to transport or repatriate them to their home countries.”
From June 27 to December 2, 2025, the Secretariat of the National Committee to Combat Online Scams (NCCOS) cracked down on a total of 115 online scam cases nationwide, arresting 4,851 suspects (including 925 women) of 23 different nationalities. Among them were 17 Malaysian nationals.
Right of Reply and Unanswered Questions
The Malaysian Embassy in Phnom Penh was contacted with detailed questions about how it handles cases of citizens who report trafficking and forced labor in scam operations, particularly when they have had their passports confiscated. At the time of publication, no official response had been provided.
At least 400 Malaysian nationals have been rescued and repatriated to their home country from 2021 to October 2025, according to the Malaysian Humanitarian Organization.
Under international anti-trafficking protocols, victims whose documents are confiscated by recruiters are recognized as potential victims of trafficking, entitled to assistance and protection — not treated primarily as immigration offenders. Advocates warn that requiring victims to pay fees and fines before assistance risks further harm.
Bun Chenda, the senior Program Officer at CENTRAL, said that providing assistance or support to victims of human trafficking is the responsibility of both the government of the country where the victims are located and their respective embassies. He noted that most victims who seek support from CENTRAL are not formally identified as victims of human trafficking.
Bun Chenda said: “When a person is not officially identified as a victim of human trafficking, it means they lose the opportunity to receive protection, access services, and receive care and support from state authorities on both sides — in their country of origin and in the country where they are located.”
For Danny and Christine, their miserable ordeal came not only from what they escaped — the scam and exploitation — but from the feeling that, once they asked for help, no one was there to support them.
“Our embassy should help our people more instead of just telling people to find their [own] way.”, Danny said.
*Note: “Denny” and “Christine” are named by the journalist to protect the identities of the victims.
