Britain has opened a new front against offshore fraud, with the UK government signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Cambodia that allows the two nations to jointly pursue the illegal scam centres targeting British victims from Southeast Asia.
Agreed on 23 September, the pact marks the first formal framework for cooperation between London and Phnom Penh on this threat. Both sides will expand the exchange of data, align operations against organised criminal groups, prosecute those responsible, and make sure people trafficked into the compounds get appropriate support.
Scam centres operate as industrial fraud factories, where scripts are written and campaigns are run at scale to hit thousands of targets simultaneously. Operators use elaborate techniques to persuade people to part with money, with fabricated romances among the most common methods.
Southeast Asia has become one of the largest global concentrations of these operations. Many of the people working inside them are foreign nationals who have been trafficked, held captive and coerced into committing fraud under the threat of torture.
As part of the deal, the UK will strengthen Cambodian policing capabilities by delivering training in cyber investigations, digital forensics and investigative procedure.
The two countries will also collaborate through the Global Fraud Taskforce, an initiative built jointly by the UK and INTERPOL. Through this channel, they aim to pinpoint suspects, back operations to shut down compounds, and track and interrupt the illicit money flows that keep the centres running.
Note: The press release concerns a government agreement rather than a company, so no company description paragraph is available.
Lord Hanson attended the International Conference on Combating Online Scams in Cambodia on behalf of the UK. During the trip, he toured the Golden Fortune scam compound, which Cambodian authorities had previously shut down.
The MoU follows coordinated UK and US sanctions imposed in October on a network running illegal scam centres throughout Southeast Asia, a move that led to the freezing of UK-based properties worth millions of pounds.
It also extends the government’s Fraud Strategy, which created a new Online Crime Centre bringing together government, police, intelligence agencies, banks and technology companies to intensify efforts to disrupt fraudsters. Supported by £250m in funding, the strategy outlines the government’s plan to make the UK the most hostile environment for fraudsters, with one in fourteen adults and one in four businesses having fallen victim.
UK minister for fraud Lord Hanson said, “Fraudsters don’t respect international borders. Over two-thirds of fraud affecting the UK originates overseas so agreements like this are vital to reducing the threat to the public here at home.
“I’m pleased to have reached this agreement with Cambodia which will strengthen our work to dismantle scam centres and stop these criminals profiting from misery. We will pursue fraudsters wherever they operate from.”
Copyright © 2026 RegTech Analyst
Copyright © 2026 RegTech Analyst
