When Thai Soldiers broke down the doors of an abandoned building near the Cambodian border last week, they found something surprising – a fully decorated police station with the official seal of Shanghai’s Public Security Bureau and a marble reception desk that had the word “POLICE” plastered on the front.
This was not a real police station. This was a movie set up to extort people using a new technique called Digital Arrest.
And it’s spreading like wildfire.
Digital Arrest Scams Are Going Global
A few doors down from the reception area, another room displayed the Australian Federal Police emblem, with small Australian flags arranged on the desk.
And down the hall, Brazilian flags surrounded a large “Policia Federal” emblem mounted on a black wall.
A Growing Type Of Scam Operation
On January 23rd, the Thai Military and cyber police announced that they had dismantled the scam compound at the Chong Chom border between Thailand and Cambodia.
Thai authorities found three multi-story buildings that appeared to be hotels from the outside. Inside, the upper floors contained rows of workstations divided by country, each designed to convince video callers they were speaking with real police officers.
Thai police seized more than 30 phones, tablets, and laptops. They also found scripted dialogues and “attention-grabbing phrases” designed to keep victims engaged.
Lt. Gen. Teeranan Nandhakwang, who led the raid, posted photos on Facebook showing the fake stations. He called the operation “a threat to humanity.”
The operation revealed something that security experts like John W with Infoblox have seen developing over the last two years in the region – scammers are shifting to police impersonation.
“It has been shifting over the last 2 years, and now represents a good chunk of the industry here”, he told me this week.
It was his post back in November that alerted me to this growing trend when he pointed to an article in Phnom Penh Live that showed an FBI call center in a Casino Complex in the city.
This movie set was designed to extort Americans.
How The Scam Works
The fake police stations were built for a scheme called “digital arrest” that has exploded across India and is now spreading to Western countries.
In India, Digital Arrest scams have soared by 400% in the last 3 years, and many of those scams have originated from Cambodia as Pig Butchering operations shift to terror-based scams.
The FBI has warned here in the US that schemes are now targeting Chinese-speaking communities in the United States. The San Francisco Police Department issued an alert about video call scams where victims spoke to people “dressed in Chinese police uniforms with a background resembling a police station in China.”
And in Australia, police reported nearly 200 cases in 2024 alone, with losses exceeding $20 million.
The scam works like this.
A victim receives a phone call or message claiming they are under investigation for a serious crime, often money laundering or drug trafficking.
The scammer then transfers them to a video call with someone dressed in a police uniform, sitting in what appears to be an official government office. The scammer tells the victim they must stay on camera for hours, days, or even months while investigators “clear” their name.
Eventually, the victim is pressured to transfer money to prove their innocence. In some extreme cases, the victims lose millions of dollars and suffer untold trauma.
Its The “Tip Of The Iceberg”
Security experts say the Chong Chom discovery confirms that scam operations are evolving beyond romance and crypto scams into the dark world of terror based scams.
John W. of Infoblox described this as just “the tip of the iceberg” in his LinkedIn post, noting the operation reflected “the perks of a diversified multilingual labour force.”
For now, the fake police stations stand empty, their flags and seals photographed as evidence. The scammers who built them are gone, likely already setting up shop somewhere else.
