An analysis of job advertisements assessed to have been posted by Cambodian scam syndicates has provided insights into the multi-billion-dollar industry and evidence it has survived amid a crackdown by the country’s government.
Cambodian digital rights advocate Moses Ngeth collected 4,991 ads posted in 37 public Cambodian job listing groups on the messaging platform Telegram between April 2023 and July this year.
While the jobs were posted anonymously, Mr Ngeth said details including wording and the locations provided showed their intent.
Cambodia became a global hub of cybercrime from the early 2020s when an online gambling ban and the pandemic saw many of the country’s casinos turned into scam centres.
While criminals often use job advertisements as part of their scams, Mr Ngeth said the ones he analysed were for real jobs in the scam operations.
The ads — posted in Khmer, Chinese and English — for roles such as “add contact”, “model real face”, “model AI”, “killer”, “money mule” and “AI model developer” were coded, he said.
