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Private guards with Police in Cambodia and military personnel worked as in scam compounds where thousands of people were trapped as workers and subjected to torture and sexual violence, a new report has claimed.

Police and military officers worked for five security companies across multiple scam compounds, sustaining the scamming industry built on trafficking, forced labour, torture and slavery, Amnesty International said in its report released on Thursday.

The rights group alleged that the security companies enabled forced confinement, rape and abuse, with guards using electric batons to keep people entrapped in the compounds.

Amnesty said the new evidence collected links more than 20 members of the military and police to the private security companies guarding at least 22 compounds. In three compounds, apparent active military personnel were seen training, leading or supervising guards, the report said. In other cases, Amnesty identified apparent state personnel carrying firearms or occupying guard positions.

Scam parks in recent years have become an industrial-scale business in Southeast Asia, especially Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos, where a mix of trafficked and willing labour has carried out digital scams on victims around the world.

Victims were lured with promises of legitimate employment, only to be held captive and forced to carry out online fraud targeting people abroad.

Personal belongings are left in the living quarters of an abandoned scam centre in O’Smach town on the Thai-Cambodian border, on September 7, 2026 (AFP/Getty)

The Cambodian government in August announced that it had shut all large scam compounds in the country after a months-long crackdown at 832 sites across the country. The government said it arrested 3,400 people associated with the compounds and freed tens of thousands of enslaved workers.

However, the government has been facing mounting calls to investigate government officials and businesspeople associated with the compounds running online frauds.

The group’s findings were based on evidence gathered through interviewing 151 scamming compound survivors and reviewing recordings of more than 400 additional victims between January 2023 and September 2026.

The rights group linked the operations with five well-connected private security firms based on interviews, visits to the compounds, and videos from more than 200 security guards’ TikTok accounts in company uniforms,

Those named were Leap Somnang Security, Security Response, ZD Security, Dara Security and Best Security. All the companies, except Dara Security, denied allegations of abuse or their involvement with the scam compounds.

“For years, survivors of these nightmarish compounds described encountering members of the Cambodian military or police inside. These accounts could not be independently verified – until now,” said Agnès Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International.

“Our findings begin to expose the long-suspected links between Cambodia’s billion-dollar criminal scamming networks and politically connected figures who have remained largely beyond scrutiny,” Ms Callamard said.

“The evidence suggests military and police involvement in a number of scamming compounds that helps explain how abuses at these sites persisted despite years of public reporting and repeated law-enforcement operations,” she said.

A police official walks outside buildings at a closed cyber scam centre compound in Kandal province on September 22, 2026 (AFP/Getty)

“At the heart of these connections are security companies whose guards controlled compound exits, hunted down people who escaped and enforced compliance through fear and violence. Without them, this system of mass exploitation could not have functioned.”

The group alleged Leap Somnang had the largest footprint of the companies and was linked to at least 15 compounds. The report claimed at least three high-ranking military and police officers had links to compounds.

A woman from Cameroon said guards at Compound Park 8, also known as PV01, restrained her on arrival and took her to a dark room where managers raped her while guards stood outside.

Another Ugandan survivor said they were chained above basins of water and beaten for hours before being shocked with an electric baton.

Most of the survivors interviewed by Amnesty said guards carried or had immediate access to electric shock batons, while others carried firearms.

Amnesty has called for an investigation into the companies. “Investigations must assess and follow responsibility from the lowest ranks all the way upwards to the companies, including the managers and owners who recruited, deployed and controlled security guards at scamming compounds,” said Ms Callamard.

The International Organization for Migration has warned that scam centres in Southeast Asia employ as many as 300,000 workers.

The Independent has reached out to the Cambodian foreign ministry for a comment.