Partnerships Work Better Than Media Punchlines
Inside Cambodia’s Fight Against Global Scams
By Ken Gamble, IFW Global Chairman
Last Sunday night, Australia watched a program on 7News Spotlight (Seven Network, Australia) about scam compounds in Cambodia that highlighted the global scale, sophistication, and human cost of the industrialized scam networks operating from the country.
There’s no question that these criminal syndicates must be exposed.
But after spending years working alongside the Cambodian National Police, and more recently walking through the compounds myself, I came away with a very different perspective.
One phrase that was used during the program particularly troubled me. Cambodia was described as Scambodia, by the program, putting a clear tabloid media spin on the story.
Calling the country Scambodia paints the whole nation as criminal. It dismisses the efforts of honest officers and reformers who are risking a lot to fight this problem. It also hardens public opinion in a way that makes international cooperation harder not easier.
Partnerships are Powerful
And while I understand that intent was to highlight the seriousness of the problem, labels like that don’t help. If anything, they risk damaging the very relationships that we depend on to take these networks down.
My job is not to point the finger at Cambodia. My job is to build relationships with the people who are working on a solution. Through the leadership of the Cambodian National Police, I have been able to share intelligence, exchange what I know, and work toward the same objective, dismantling Chinese organised crime groups that are behind these frauds.
Last year, I had the extraordinary privilege of joining the Cambodian National Police delegation to the 93rd Interpol General Assembly in Marrakech, Morocco. And more recently, I was deeply honoured to receive the Commissioner’s token from Cambodian National Police in recognition of the work we’ve done together.
I accepted that not just as a personal honour, but as a symbol of what can be achieved when governments and private sectors are collaborating.
Ken Takes You Inside a Compound
When I walked through one of the largest compounds in Bavet, near the Vietnamese border, I saw an eerie silence, computers and ID cards just scattered across the desks, thousands of workstations just left as they were when authorities raided.
Watch Ken Gamble’s personal walkthrough video on the IFW Global YouTube channel.
What struck me most was learning that many of the people inside had been trafficked and were forced to work under intimidation and violence. This is not just Cambodia’s problem. This is a global problem. The victims are everywhere. The money moves instantly across jurisdictions, and intelligence sits in many different silos all over the world.
No country can resolve this on their own. That’s why relationships matter. Around the world, every country has bad apples, Australia included, but every country also has courageous officers who put their lives on the line to protect their communities. It is easy to criticize from the outside.
It is much harder to stand inside one of these compounds, to speak with the people leading the response, and to appreciate the true enormity of what they’re facing. The war on organised cybercrime won’t be won through criticism alone.
It’ll be won through trust, intelligence sharing, and strong partnerships. That’s why I plan to continue the work alongside Cambodian National Police, not because the problem doesn’t exist but because I’ve seen firsthand the commitment of the people who are determined to solve it.
If we really want to defeat these criminal syndicates, we need more partnerships and fewer stereotypes.
