Forty-seven Filipinos are now facing prosecution in Cambodia after being swept up in police raids on online scam operations, the Philippine Embassy in Phnom Penh said, warning others still trapped inside fraud compounds to get out before authorities reach them.
The detained Filipinos are split between two provinces, according to figures the embassy attributed to Cambodia’s Commission for Combating Online Scams (CCOS). Twenty-four are held in Sihanouk province, while another 23 are jailed in Battambang. All face pending criminal charges. Separately, three Filipinos are set to be tried over the killing of a fellow countryman inside a scam compound.
The arrests are part of a far larger enforcement drive. Cambodian police have detained 244 people working in online scam operations under the country’s new anti-scam law, and those individuals are now moving through prosecution and trial, the embassy said.
The 23 held in Battambang were among 27 foreign nationals taken in coordinated raids across Kep, Battambang and Phnom Penh, Khmer Times reported. That group had relocated to a villa in May after fleeing earlier crackdowns elsewhere, a pattern provincial officials described as scam networks splintering into smaller cells to avoid detection.
In its appeal, the embassy directed Filipinos still inside scam compounds to leave on their own or approach either the embassy or Cambodian police if they need to be rescued from where they are being held.
The new law carries graduated penalties depending on the offense. Running an online scam through an organized group or against multiple victims draws two to five years in prison. Where the operation involves violence, abuse or cruelty, migrant smuggling, human trafficking, labor exploitation or forced criminality, the term rises to between five and 20 years. Recruiters and trainers who supply scam labor face five to 10 years, while gathering identification or personal documents with criminal intent carries one to three years. Anyone acting as an accomplice is also liable.
The CCOS noted that certain individuals may avoid criminal charges entirely. Whistleblowers who help identify offenders, victims of human trafficking, and those who voluntarily walk away from their compounds can be processed for deportation rather than prosecuted.
The embassy also pressed jobseekers to scrutinize employment offers circulating on social media, where scam recruiters continue to target Filipinos, and to follow Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) rules designed to guard against illegal recruitment and trafficking.
Filipinos in danger were told to reach the embassy’s Assistance-to-Nationals section by email at phnompenhpe.atn@dfa.gov.ph or through its hotline at +855 98 888 771, available via SMS, Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber. The Cambodian police hotlines are 0312012345 and 0316012345, with reports also accepted at hotinfocnp@police.gov.kh.
