Portraits of Gandhi hung next to a police station backdrop emblazoned with the Central Bureau of Investigation logo. It was a convincing room designed for video calls.
But this wasn’t a government office. It was just one of several mock law enforcement stations inside “My Casino,” a massive scam compound in Cambodia that had become a digital arrest factory
The compound had housed 7,000 workers, but they were all gone now. They all fled after police raids.
The 100 real police officers who raided the compound were no match for the 7,000 fake police officers streaming out of it, so most of the scammers were not arrested.
What remained revealed just how fast the scale of Digital Arrest is sweeping over the world.
Rows Of Computer Terminals And Police Stations
Rows of computer terminals filled workspaces that stretched across multiple buildings.
Desks were covered with documents detailing how to scam Indian victims. Sound-dampening acoustic foam lined the walls of studio booths where callers posed as police officers, customs agents, and investigators.
Reuters journalists were given rare access to the site and found video sets from many countries, each carefully designed to appear official.
The Indian station featured not just the CBI logo and national flag, but also the Greater Mumbai Police insignia. The reporters took pictures.
“Even with both forces combined, we still can’t stop them because there were about 6,000 to 7,000 of them when they left this place,” Kampot provincial police chief Mao Chanmothurith told reporters during a government-organized tour. His entire province has only 1,000 police officers and 300 military police.
The Kingpin Behind The Fake Police Factory
The fake police factory was run by Kuong Li, a 50-year-old Cambodian casino tycoon whose business empire included hotels, casinos, and construction companies.
He was arrested on June 15, 2026, for organized crime and money laundering, dating as far back as 2019.
He was exposed by the BBC back in 2023 for running scam compounds but that didn’t stop him from winning one of Cambodia’s highest royal honors – the title of “Neak Oknha”
It wasn’t until intense international pressure that he was arrested and charged last month.
The Digital Arrest Playbook Was Their Method
The My Casino scam did not follow the typical pig butchering method; they used fear-based tactics to extort money from victims.
Victims in India would receive calls claiming they were under investigation for serious crimes like money laundering or drug trafficking. The caller, posing as a law enforcement official, would order them to remain on a video call while transferring money for verification or to clear their names.
The fake police station backdrops made the threat feel real. During video calls, scammers sat in front of official-looking setups complete with flags, emblems, and portraits of respected national figures. Fear and urgency drove victims to comply. Many transferred large sums to accounts controlled by the syndicate.
India has been hit very hard with the scam. In the last six years, victims have lost a combined $6.3 billion dollars to fake police running the scheme.
Most of those scams now originate in Cambodia.
