When I was scammed one year ago I thought the scammer came from Malaysia only. It was a phone scam and the scammer spoke to me in Malay.
Little did I know that these scam business came from neighbouring countries and had evolved into such sophistication that operates across international border with scam compounds coming mainly from Sihanokville -Cambodia, and KK Park,
KK Park. Myanmar / Thai border.
The Chinese Connection.
Chen Zhi, the Chinese national, who also hold a Cambodian citizenship was responsible for the massive build up of the scam business into a huge lucrative multi billion business empire operating out from Cambodia.
There were hundreds of scam compounds operating and thousands of scammers from different countries forced to scam people from over 30+ countries everyday, and they have been operating since 2015!
Watch this video to gain an insight into the magnitude of the scam syndicate in Myanmar.
How it all started.
A school dropout and a billionaire at 38 years old, Chen Zhi's world unravelled in October 2025, when he was accused by the US authorities of operating “one of the largest transnational criminal organisations in Asia”
One look at Chen Zhi - 陈志 ), would you believe that he is the boss of the biggest scam business in Asia?
Youthful, smooth baby- face, with a goatee, respectable, he could have been the ideal son-in-law of any Chinese family. Yet beneath this look is a scam kingpin.
Somewhere in 2010, he led an organization - Prince Group, moved to Cambodia, supposedly doing real estate business, but later turned into a multi billion scam business. His organization had scammed thousands of people of millions of dollars all over the world. It was reported that he had asset of about USD15 billion in bitcoin and cryptocurrency and was making USD30 million a day.
Chen Zhi's bio.
Born in 1987 ( 38 years ) in Fujian Province, China, he took up Cambodian citizenship in 2014 and built a business conglomerate called Prince Group, with businesses in real estates, casinos, charity, construction, hotels and banking.
Later the business transformed into the underworld business of money laundering, online scams, human trafficking, shell companies, Bitcoin, cryptocurrency frauds and mafia like businesses. The casinos were used as scam compounds and thousands of young people were tricked into job scams promising high salaries but forced to work as scammers.
Disguised as legitimate business he was a major contributor to the economy of Cambodia. Doing philanthropic works and charity he cultivated powerful friends in the government and like all countries with weak governance he bought his way into the inner circle and became an advisor to the government.
Legitimate and illegitimate businesses, all wrapped and disguised, he became a powerful and influential figure , earned an honourable title in Cambodia and was able to act with impunity.
For such a young guy this was a remarkable achievement. He was the epitome of a succesful entrepreneur and a model for aspiring ‘would-be scammers.’
How can a young guy be so smart and acquired so much wealth in such a short period of time?
He could be the youngest fraudster billionaire entrepreneur the world has ever known and way ahead of others like Jho Low, the fugitive fraudster of Malaysia or Bernie Madoff, the Ponzi scheme fraudster of US.
How did Chen Zhi become a fraudster?
If you were to deduce further Chen Zhi would have started his business around 2014 ( when he took up Cambodian citizenship) Like all fraudster in past history he bought his way into the Cambodian elite and ruling class through favours, bribery and corruption. Under the guise of a developer he help transform Sihanoukville, Sihanoukville , a laid back seaside into a casino resort like Macau.
He was in his 20's when he landed in Cambodia. According to his bio he was just an Internet Cafe manager in Fujian. Took a loan from an uncle, saw the business opportunities in Cambodia and within a short period of 10+ years, he had built a conglomerate raking in USD 30 million a day, dealing with all sorts of illegitimate businesses.
How Chen Zhi became a Super Scammer.
Life of crime.
Chen Zhi's public record shows that his organized criminal enterprise was actively operating in the mid- 2010s. Since he was born in 1987 this would suggest that he was already a big time criminal in his mid 20's. At a time when most people were still attending classes in colleges/ universities, or pursuing post graduate studies, he was already a super entrepreneur dealing and wheeling in millions .
Arrest and extradition to China.
Chen Zhi was arrested and extradited back to China. Let's hope the Chinese government gave him the punishment he deserves as most of his scam victims were Mainland Chinese.
Meanwhile that's not the end of scams. The fall of Chen Zhi is one of the major success. The bombing of KK Park in Myamar may see a temporary halt to the scam activities but these groups have already dispersed into neighbouring countries.
With internet, digital technology and AI it's a matter of time before they regroup and start their operations again.
So long as the business is lucrative, penalty is lenient, easy set up, there will be people who will be attracted to easy money.
There is no way to totally eliminate this scam menace in the near future. With global digital economy and powerful internet connectivity it's easy for any syndicates to start up new scam compounds.
Maybe with Elon Musk Space X satellite to detect and disrupt internet connectivity on scam activity and inter governmental cooperation can help stamp out upcoming scammers quickly but total elimination is not possible.
What we can do is to stay vigilant to avoid from being scammed.
Education and self-awareness is the key.
Dos & Don'ts on Love scams.
Scammers have compiled into a playbook on the methods use to scam .
Please learn from them to help prevent yourself from falling into their traps.
Conclusion.
Today's crooks are invisible. They come in the form of virtual contact, online friends. Internet gurus and influencers.
Real or false you cannot differentiate unless you are tech savvy, alert and an expert on all the scam tactics used by them.
Social media, cybercrimes are on the rise and with on line banking and shopping, these open opportunities for cyber criminals.
As long as there are people who wants to get rich the easy there will be scammers.
Yes. Scammers are evil people. They don't treat people as humans, but a transaction. This is the dark side of every human when motivated in the wrong path.
According to Carl Jung, the Swiss psychologist, we, humans possessed different archetypes. There is good and bad in all of us.
We are capable of evil, depending on circumstances. Good and evil exists side by side.
Don't let the dark side defeat us.
Don't let the demon in us triumph.
Let the light in us shine.
Jack Ung (jack.uct1953@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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