As scam sites empty in Cambodia, Korean activist says this week is ‘last golden hour’ for rescues
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — When the door opened, the smell of stale cigarettes filled the air. Each small room, no more than a few square meters, contained two or three bunk beds. Clothes and blankets lay scattered across the dusty floors — signs of people who had fled in haste. On Oct. 16, when this reporter visited the Taizi compound in southern Cambodia’s Takeo Province with a joint government response team, the site was eerily silent. Located about 40 kilometers south of Phnom Penh, the complex was run by the Prince Group, which was sanctioned by the United States and the United Kingdom the previous day for large-scale fraud and human trafficking. Once known as one of Cambodia’s largest “yuanqu,” or scam compound, it now stood deserted. The site consisted of 11 four-story buildings with approximately 120 rooms, each estimated to house four to six people. By rough calculation, the compound could have accommodated more than 5,000 workers, including Koreans and other foreign nationals who had been held captive and forced into online fraud schemes. Now, only dust and trash rema
Oct 17, 2025By Hankookilbo
