Cambodia’s Park No. 8 Offers Rare Look Inside Southeast Asia’s Scam Industry

Cambodian authorities recently gave journalists rare access to the shuttered “Park No. 8” online scam compound, where reporters documented extensive simplified Chinese signage and a self-contained complex of offices, residences and network facilities. Separately, a video posted to X purports to show large numbers of abandoned mobile phones near the Thai-Myanmar border, as reporting indicates suspected scam compounds around Myawaddy have continued to rebuild or relocate.

Simplified Chinese signage throughout Cambodia’s Park No. 8

On Sept. 21, 2026, Cambodian authorities took journalists inside “Park No. 8” in Kampong Trabaek district, Prey Veng province. Construction began in 2023, and Cambodian authorities raided and shut the compound in February 2026.

The Cambodia-China Times reported that Park No. 8 covers about 120 hectares and can accommodate roughly 20,000 people. The site is also known as Meun Chey Commercial City or Legend Park.

Reporters found densely packed multi-storey buildings surrounding an artificial lake, along with shops, restaurants and a large cafeteria.

The compound also contained offices, accommodation, commercial space and network facilities. Access-control gates and surveillance cameras were visible across the site, giving the sprawling complex the appearance of a self-contained “city within a city.”

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Simplified Chinese signs appeared throughout the compound. One building displayed “No. 8 Happy City,” with smaller Chinese characters advertising a restaurant, spa and guest rooms.

Another building carried a Chinese-English advertisement for “Leader Trendy Men’s Fashion,” including a phone number, a Telegram contact and directions to walk 50 meters inside.

Nearby signs advertised “International Express Delivery” and “Pagoda Fruit Garden,” again directing visitors farther inside the compound.

Inside, reporters found abandoned desks, chairs, computer monitors and other office equipment, as well as server rooms packed with fiber-optic and network cabling.

Other Chinese slogans remained on office walls, including: “Please don’t pretend to work hard, because results won’t play along with you.” A large drum decorated with a red dragon stood beside a computer desk.

Legend Innovation linked to Prince Group

The Cambodia-China Times reported that Legend Innovation operated Park No. 8 and had links to Prince Group. The outlet also reported connections to Huione Group through the site’s registered address, logistics and payment services.

On March 26, 2026, the UK government sanctioned Legend Innovation and its director, Eang Soklim. The government said Legend Innovation operated No. 8 Park, which it described as a scam compound linked to Prince Group.

On Sept. 21, 2026, the U.S. State Department announced visa restrictions on 32 people it said were responsible for or complicit in cybercrime and cyber-enabled scams targeting Americans; most were affiliated with Prince Group.

The State Department said any valid visas held by the 32 individuals had been revoked and noted that Prince Group had already been the subject of multiple U.S. sanctions actions over cyber-enabled fraud.

Chen Zhi, founder and chairman of Prince Group, was indicted in the United States in October 2025 on wire-fraud conspiracy and money-laundering conspiracy charges. U.S. court filings allege that Chen maintained records of bribes to public officials, including luxury watches worth millions of dollars, and that a foreign official helped him obtain a diplomatic passport he later used to travel to the United States. The charges are allegations, and Chen is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

FBI expands ‘Operation Blackout’

On Sept. 29, FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News Digital that the bureau was expanding Operation Blackout, a global campaign to identify, disrupt and dismantle overseas scam compounds targeting Americans.

Fox News Digital reported that the operation combines overseas raids and asset seizures with efforts to cut scam networks’ communications, rescue trafficking victims and return stolen funds. Patel said roughly $17 billion tied to the schemes had been seized.

The campaign targets criminal syndicates operating large scam compounds across Southeast Asia, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa, according to Fox News Digital. Many of the operations rely on trafficked workers forced to defraud victims abroad.

Patel described some of the sites as industrial-scale operations large enough to resemble self-contained communities.

“These are towns, these are cities,” Patel told Fox News Digital. “These are actual villages with structures where they force people into forced labor.” The description is consistent with the scale of compounds documented in Cambodia and Myanmar.

Fox News Digital also reported that an August operation at Cambodia’s roughly 200-acre O’Smach Resort scam compound searched 28 buildings over three days and seized 113 hard drives, 15 computers and 35 boxes of evidence.

Separate reporting by ABC News has documented how scam networks in Myanmar rebuild or relocate after raids, while many workers inside the compounds are trafficking victims rather than willing participants.

Scam compounds reportedly expand around Myawaddy

Despite repeated crackdowns, suspected scam compounds around Myawaddy have continued to reappear, expand or move to new locations.

Karen News has reported renewed construction and activity around Myawaddy in southeastern Myanmar’s Karen State, across the river from Thailand. Some previously dismantled compounds have reportedly been repaired, while new sites have appeared in more remote areas.

A July WIRED analysis, based on satellite imagery reviewed by the International Justice Mission, identified at least 25 suspected scam sites that had appeared in the Myawaddy region since around the beginning of 2026.

Karen News reported in April that scam networks displaced from other parts of Myawaddy Township had begun building new facilities in Thaybawboe Village, with some structures already completed and preparations underway to resume operations.

In July, Karen News reported that other networks had moved farther south toward Payathonzu, also known as Three Pagodas Pass, amid pressure on compounds around Myawaddy.

ABC News has described a similar pattern in Myanmar: raids may disrupt individual compounds, but operators have rebuilt or shifted activity to new locations.

The issue drew wider attention in January 2025 after Chinese actor Wang Xing was lured to Thailand and trafficked across the border into Myanmar. The Associated Press reported that Thai police identified Wang as a trafficking victim who had been forced to work in a scam operation.

China, Myanmar and Thailand subsequently stepped up coordinated action against scam centers. Reuters reported in March 2025 that many operations along the Thai-Myanmar border grew out of the region’s casino and online-gambling industry, with some facilities later repurposed for cyber fraud.

The compounds have also been linked to human trafficking, forced labor and abuse. Radio Free Asia has documented accounts of workers facing beatings, electric shocks and other coercion for refusing orders or failing to meet scam quotas.

Abandoned phones found near Thai-Myanmar border

China-based commentator Li Muyang recently posted a video on X that purports to show large numbers of abandoned mobile phones scattered across an overgrown area near the Thai-Myanmar border in eastern Myanmar.

Large quantities of telecommunications equipment have been found during previous crackdowns in the region. Myanmar’s President’s Office reported in November 2025 that operations in Shwe Kokko had uncovered 21,870 mobile phones, 3,310 computers, 102 Starlink devices and 22 routers.

Vision Times could not independently verify the video’s exact location or date, who owned the phones, or the circumstances in which they were abandoned. The footage therefore cannot be definitively linked to a particular scam compound.

In the video, the narrator says the footage was filmed by a driver in the Jiaok area near the Thai-Myanmar border. The narrator describes the devices as personal phones rather than work phones and speculates about what their number might represent; that interpretation has not been independently verified.

Comments overlaid on the circulating video expressed alarm at the number of phones and speculated about who may have owned them. Those comments provide no independent evidence about what happened to the devices or their owners.

An X user identified as “Luckyvape” relayed an unverified account from a foreign man who allegedly operated a guesthouse near the Thai border and claimed to have witnessed people being taken into Myanmar against their will. The post also cited large daily trafficking estimates that were not supported by independent evidence.

Vision Times could not independently verify the account or the trafficking estimates in the post. The available evidence also does not establish that the abandoned phones belonged to trafficking victims or that each phone represented one person.

In additional posts on Sept. 25, the user said they had compiled cases of young people reported missing in Thailand and claimed that women made up about half of the cases they found.

The user argued that some disappearances appeared only in family or social-media posts and therefore might not be captured in public reporting.

Those claims were based on the user’s own collection of cases and were not independently verified by Vision Times.

The area identified in the posts lies in Myawaddy Township, Karen State, near the Thai border. WIRED’s satellite-imagery investigation has independently documented the construction and expansion of numerous suspected scam sites across the wider Myawaddy region despite enforcement campaigns.