Japanese Personal Info Left at Thai-Cambodian Border Scam Base

Chong Chom, Thailand, March 16 (Jiji Press)–The Thai military has shown international media an abandoned scam compound on the northeastern border with Cambodia, where documents containing many Japanese individuals’ personal information remain scattered. The tour to the Chong Chom border area in the Kap Choeng district of Surin Province on Thursday allowed participating journalists to catch a glimpse of complicated transborder online fraud, which has grown into “an industry.” On the 800,000-square-meter compound hosting some 160 buildings, an estimated 20,000 people had been engaged in scam operations. In December last year, the fraud ring members fled the compound shortly before the Thai military shelled there as a Cambodian drone launch site amid escalating cross-border clashes between the Southeast Asian countries. Clothes and half-eaten meals were found left behind. Prior to the artillery fire, many people were seen leaving in buses, a Thai military source said. The site visit showed rooms modified to resemble police stations and banks in Australia, Brazil, China and other countries, with fake police uniforms hung on racks. These rooms suggest that scammers used both video and voice calls to trick victims. Multilingual manuals for conversations with targets and documents containing foreign telephone numbers were scattered on desks and the floor in a room, and soundproof telephone boxes were lining the hallway. Many signs and posters inside buildings were written in Chinese. On a desk in one room, there were more than 70 sheets of paper detailing Japanese targets’ names, ages, telephone numbers, family members, bank account balances and holdings of investment trusts and securities. Their addresses indicate that victims exist across the country. Some paper putting “Yusuke Matsuoka” as an alias for a scammer pretending to be a police officer is attached with comments observing that scamming failed because Matsuoka was “doubted from the start,” “(the target) did not understand what I was saying at all,” or “a third party stepped in.” Moreover, there was a set of frequently asked questions and answers regarding personal information leaks, unpaid electricity bills and police investigations, which are believed to have been used in deceiving victims. Many youngsters have been tricked into or abducted by online fraud rings from all over the world. From Japan alone, 35 people have so far this year been taken into custody by such groups in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. At the compound, posters on the walls outlined corporal punishment and fines for leaving one’s post without permission or violating rules, showing how strictly the scam ring controlled the callers. The Thai military said it found a torture room with whips and equipment for applying electric shocks. In Japan, financial damage caused by online fraud, including telephone scams and false investment solicitations on social media, reached a record 324.11 billion yen in 2025. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]