O'SMACH, Cambodia (AP) — I have often used the word industrial-scale in my own writing to describe the scam compounds that dot the region.
But the weight of that phrase truly sunk in at the O’Smach Resort complex that we visited Tuesday. Thailand's military, which conducted a tour for the media, said that the whole area encompasses around 197 acres (80 hectares), equivalent to 150 American football fields.
It wasn't my first time at a scam center, but
its scale dwarfed anything I had seen before.
From my base in Southeast Asia, I have followed this issue for the past few years, watching its scale only grow larger and larger.
Scam compounds have mushroomed across Southeast Asia since the pandemic. Inside these industrial-scale complexes, workers attempt to lure unsuspecting targets from countries all across the world in sophisticated online-based scams. The latest estimates from the U.N. office on Human Rights are that around 300,000 workers are caught up in the industry regionally.
Thailand’s military invited journalists back to the huge scam complex that it had seized in December during its border conflict with Cambodia. The military said that it had taken the area in response to the Cambodian side using it as a base of operations for launching attacks.
The complex was called the O’Smach Resort, owned by Cambodian politician Ly Yong Phat, who faces U.S. sanctions for rights abuses in the very same complex. It's unclear, however, whether the new construction also belongs to Ly. Throughout the massive grounds of the self-contained town, there were signs of construction. Piles of bricks and construction cranes sat waiting for workers to finish the job.
The military also took us to the premises where workers likely scammed Americans. FBI data released Tuesday shows that Americans lost near $21 billion to scams in 2025 alone.
On the desks inside the four-story office building were still snacks from the previous users, as well as scripts and notes in Chinese on each aspect of the scam. American SIM cards were scattered on the surface as well.
There was an elaborate backstory to target the Americans. One of the scripts on the desk was 24 pages of an in-depth character sketch of a woman named Mila who had earned a lot of money on the gold options trading market.
But the script went further. Mila had lost her husband to leukemia when their daughter was just a baby. It constructed memories of her childhood, such as her getting bullied by other girls, and then her parents sending her to South Africa to live with her uncle in order to be in a healthier environment.
There’s 157 buildings, 29 of which were buildings that housed the scam companies and their offices. The rest included massive dorm complexes, and more luxurious accommodations that included apartments and three-story villas. The military officials said that they estimated at least 10,000 people were living there.
There was also a variety of Chinese restaurants, catering to people who wanted spicy Hunan cuisine, or southern Shaxian cuisine, or hot and sour rice noodles, a Sichuanese classic.
While Thailand and Cambodia have vowed to tackle the problem, the scale of the problem is far more global.
“Every country of the world has to join together to solve this problem, (we) cannot do it alone with Cambodia and Thailand,” said Air Chief Marshal Prapas Sornchaidee, who was one of the officials leading the tour.
