Inside Southeast Asia’s scam compounds: A trafficked worker tells of fraud, coercion and torture

I was recently in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and approached a group of young men in front of the Indian embassy. I told them I was a University of Toronto researcher.

I asked: “Are you from the scam compounds?” Scam compounds are industrial-scale complexes where trafficked workers are confined and forced to carry out online fraud.

They were. One man in his early 30s named Akshit told me his story.