Boarding tuk-tuks, Lexus SUVs and tourist coaches, an exodus departed Amber Casino in the coastal city of Sihanoukville, one of the illicit trade's most notorious hubs.

"Cambodia is in upheaval," one Chinese man told AFP. "Nowhere is safe to work anymore," he said Thursday.

Similar scenes played out at alleged scam compounds across Cambodia this week as the government said it was cracking down on the multibillion-dollar industry.

But residents said many of the people working inside the tightly secured buildings moved out several days before the arrival of authorities, and an analyst dubbed it "anti-crime theatre".

From hubs across Southeast Asia, scammers lure internet users globally into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments.

Initially largely targeting Chinese speakers, transnational crime groups have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal tens of billions annually from victims around the world.

Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, sometimes trafficked foreign nationals who have been trapped and forced to work under threat of violence.

AFP journalists visited several alleged internet scam sites in Sihanoukville, in the wake of the high-profile arrest in Cambodia and extradition to China of internationally sanctioned accused scam boss Chen Zhi.

Few of those departing the casinos, hotels and other facilities were willing to speak with AFP, and none were willing to be identified due to concerns for their safety.

"Our Chinese company just told us to leave straight away," said a Bangladeshi man outside Amber Casino.

"But we'll be fine. There are plenty of other job offers," he added.

Studded with casinos and unfinished high-rises, the glitzy resort of Sihanoukville has become a cyberscam hotbed, where thousands of people involved in the black market are believed to operate cons from fortified compounds.

Before Chen was indicted last year by US authorities who said his firm Prince Group was a front for a transnational cybercrime network, the Chinese-born businessman ran multiple gambling hotels in Sihanoukville.

A 2025 Amnesty International report identified 22 scam locations in the coastal resort, out of a total of 53 in the country.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimates global losses to online scams reached up to $37 billion in 2023, and that at least 100,000 people work in the industry in Cambodia alone.

- Tipped off -

But the Cambodian government claims the lawless era has come to an end, with Prime Minister Hun Manet pledging on Facebook to "eliminate... all the problems related to the crime of cyber scams".

Cambodia's anti-scam commission says it has raided 118 scam locations and arrested around 5,000 people in the last six months.

Following Chen's deportation to China, the Cambodian government has tightened the screws on some Prince Group affiliates, ordering Prince Bank into liquidation and freezing home sales at several of its luxury properties.

In recent months, China has stepped up its pursuit of the scam industry, sweeping up Chen and other key figures from across Southeast Asia to try them on its own soil.

But while Cambodia says it is "cracking down", there are suspicions over the timing.

A tuk-tuk driver in Sihanoukville told AFP hundreds of Chinese people left one compound this week before police arrived.

"Looks like they were tipped off," said the 42-year-old, declining to give his name.

Mark Taylor, former head of a Cambodia-based anti-trafficking NGO, said the "preemptive shifting of scam centre resources", including workers, equipment and managers, had been seen ahead of law enforcement sweeps.

It was "seemingly the product of collusion", he added, in a strategy with "dual ends" of boosting the government's anti-crime credentials while preserving the scamming industry's ability to survive and adapt.

Amnesty has accused the Cambodian government of "deliberately ignoring" rights abuses by cybercrime gangs, which sometimes lure workers with offers of high-paying jobs before holding them against their will.

AFP journalists saw several coachloads of Mandarin speakers leaving Sihanoukville on the main highway to the capital Phnom Penh.

Multiple people said they "didn't know" where they were going or what their plans were, but appeared anxious as they anticipated law enforcement closing in.

Outside the Amber Casino, holding a fake designer hold-all, the Bangladeshi man fell in with the crowd, saying: "This is about survival now."