Escaping Scam City | 4 | The City of Falling Men

Summary

The Fight of My Life: Escaping Scam City

Episode 4: The City of Falling Men
Date: June 2, 2025
Host: Rich Thompson, Cadence Productions

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Episode Overview

In this harrowing installment, the series exposes life inside one of Southeast Asia’s most infamous scam compounds: Kaibo, grimly nicknamed “the city of falling men.” Through first-person testimony and investigative reporting, we follow Micah and Ava as they are torn apart and forced into different corners of Cambodia’s criminal underworld. The episode reveals the mechanics of forced labor schemes, the culture of violence and impunity, and the staggering collusion between criminal networks and powerful elites—including the Cambodian state itself. As the episode draws to a close, tension mounts with Micah plotting a daring new escape and making contact with activist Jake Sims, setting up a fight for survival that’s as much about exposing systems as saving individuals.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Betrayal and Negotiation at DV Casino ([00:08]–[03:19])

• Micah is accused of betraying leadership at the DV Casino scamming compound, leading to catastrophic fallout.
• He is surveilled and locked away; Ava is confronted by the boss who puts forth brutal choices:
  • Pay $11,000
  • Be “sold” to Vietnam
  • Remain at the compound essentially forever in exchange for sparing Micah.
• Ava: “If you stay here forever, then he wouldn't get beaten up. I didn't believe him, but I felt there was no choice.” ([02:54])
• Ava volunteers to stay so Micah may be sent elsewhere in hopes he’ll be safer.
• Memorable quote:
  • Ava: “I said I will willingly stay. And it's better that he goes to stay with your friend.” ([03:08])

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2. Inside the Walls of Kaibo: Arrival & First Impressions ([04:31]–[09:59])

• Micah is transported to Kaibo, a sprawling walled compound housing an estimated 12,000–30,000 forced laborers.
• First impressions:
  • Vastness, heavy security, and prison-like atmosphere.
  • “Whole compound was around like 25 building... surround[ed by] the wire, kind of like prison wire.” ([06:37])
• Life inside:
  • Multiple work floors, conference rooms, bedrooms overcrowded with bunk beds, constant surveillance via CCTV.
  • Hidden “punishment floor” rumored for torture and beatings.
• Punishments are routine: “The third floor... is the punishment floor.” ([09:10])
  • “It's very normal. He said.” ([09:31])
• Escaping seems impossible; atmosphere is one of omnipresent fear.

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3. The City of Falling Men – Life and Death at Kaibo ([11:47]–[15:44])

• Locally, Kaibo is called “the city of falling men” due to frequent deaths by suicide or failed escape attempts.
• First-hand account:
  • Guard recounts: “Yeah, sometime we arrested back recapture the people who have escaped. Some people die. Falling down, die. ” ([14:02])
• Journalist Dara: “On average, every week, there was a report of at least one person in Siannockville falling to their death... one week where a death was reported every single day.” ([14:36])
• Jake Sims underscores tragedy: “Just the ones that can't be covered up that make it into the news.” ([15:25])
• The compound is a 20,000-person open-air prison, shrouded in violence and despair.

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4. Daily Life and Systemic Control ([15:44]–[22:43])

• Routine:
  • Wake-up, eat, forced group singing ([17:58]–[18:19])
  • Strict quotas; punishments (forced pushups, salary cuts for yawning, extended work hours)
• Micah: “If we didn't sing loudly, we will be like make the push up around 10 times.” ([18:26])
  • $50 docked for yawning three times ([18:40])
  • Daily targets mandatory; otherwise, workers forced to continue into the night ([19:54])
• Saturday “freedom”: Limited movement within compound to a faux “market” (barbershop, supermarket); purchases add to workers’ debt ([20:09])
• Social isolation: “I didn't make any friends because I can't trust anyone inside there.” ([21:24])
• Violence and torture:
  • Roommate publicly tortured with tasers, then disappeared for allegedly being sold or worse. ([21:49])
  • “They will be like selling to the...to the black market to sell the organ or something like that...bird...throw into the sea...” ([22:43])

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5. Collapse of Hope and the Will to Escape ([23:07]–[24:32])

• Micah’s despair: “I really think that I never be came out again. I think I. I might be like die at there because in my mind I keep thinking that I don't want to scam any innocent people.” ([23:53])
• The emotional toll leads Micah to plan another desperate escape.

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6. Systemic Corruption & Global Complicity ([27:02]–[35:00])

• Jason Tower and Jake Sims analyze how scam compounds like Kaibo persist through state collusion:
  • “There are elites in all of these countries that are directly partnering with the Chinese crime groups, with the Chinese mafia groups to make all this happen.” ([27:02]–[27:29])
  • “Cambodia...has given advisory positions and official titles to individuals that are effectively criminal kingpins.” ([27:29])
• Forced scamming is not unique to Cambodia (present in Laos, Myanmar, Africa, Dubai, etc.), but in Cambodia, scamming is estimated at $12 billion/year—almost half the GDP. ([29:03])
• A “landmark report” by Jake Sims, aired on Australia’s ABC, was referenced:
  • “Too big to fail.” ([29:57])
• Sims traces the deep historical roots: “The ruling party has specialized from day one in really predatory, extractive, often outright criminal industries...and effectively, when scamming came along, it supercharged all of this.” ([31:21])
• Hardline denial by state agencies, targeted repression of activists, and refusal to categorize forced scam labor as trafficking ([32:44], [33:23])

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7. The Human Cost & Seeds of Resistance ([35:00]–[39:03])

• Encounter with Amir, a Pakistani worker trapped inside:
  • “What to do? This is our life.” ([35:00])
• Micah’s efforts to reach the outside:
  • Secretly searches for help online.
  • Eventually contacts Jake Sims via Twitter:
    • “We are being forced work as scammers in KB Chinatown in Cukville, Cambodia. Please rescue us and save us. Them Chinese kidnapped. Electronic shock, Human trafficking, beating imprisonment. We don't want work with them. Force us work as scammer. Rescue us as soon as help us for Jake.” ([38:13])
• Jake Sims: Hesitant but moved by the plea; acknowledges paranoia but decides to look deeper ([38:58])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Ava, on bargaining for Micah’s life:
  “If you stay here forever, then he wouldn't get beaten up. I didn't believe him, but I felt there was no choice.” ([02:54])

• Micah, on the threat of being sold:
  “If you ask him to help, we will be sold you to the Myanmar. He told me that. And before you go to Myanmar, we will be like electric shot and then beaten you first. And we will lock you to the dark room until you've been sold.” ([17:25])

• Jake Sims, reporter and activist:
  “This industry scamming had become likely the government's biggest source of revenue. So this is the primary way that the ruling elite were supporting themselves, propping up their ruling strategy. And in a very real sense, this is the thing that was keeping them in power.” ([34:05])

• Jason Tower, regional crime expert:
  “Cambodia is one of the most egregious... actually has given advisory positions and official titles to individuals that are effectively criminal kingpins.” ([27:29])

• Micah, facing the loss of hope:
  "I really think that I never be came out again. I think I...might be like die at there because...I don't want to scam any innocent people." ([23:53])

• Amir, trapped worker:
  “What to do? This is our life.” ([35:00])

• Jake Sims, on the scope of the challenge:
  “It's easily the largest, most lucrative industry in the entire country, and that is way beyond the mandate of my former NGO, or any other NGO for that matter. It's...uncharted territory.” ([35:00])

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Important Timestamps

• [02:54] Ava describes coercive choices to save Micah
• [14:02–15:31] Testimonies about escape attempts and deaths (“falling men”)
• [17:25] Micah details threats of being sold, electric shock, and dark room punishments
• [23:53] Micah’s emotional collapse and refusal to scam innocents
• [27:02, 27:29] Jason Tower on state collusion in forced scams
• [29:03] Cambodia’s scam industry size ($12 billion/year)
• [34:05] Jake Sims on scamming as state revenue
• [38:13] Micah’s direct plea for rescue to Jake Sims via Twitter

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Tone & Takeaways

The episode is raw, compassionate, and investigative—showcasing firsthand the brutality, isolation, and hopelessness inside cyber scam compounds while never losing sight of the human stakes. The storytelling is interwoven with analysis on the international systems and criminal-political partnerships that enable such abuses. Through vivid details, personal struggles, and the first glimmers of resistance, the episode makes a chilling but urgent call to acknowledge—and act on—the reality faced by thousands trapped in forced scamming operations.

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Listen to the next episode for the continuation of Micah's and Ava’s fight for freedom.

Transcript

[Micah]

Cadence Productions Unheard.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

DV Casino Day 53 the leadership at the scamming compound is in flux. Their golden boy, the one they'd earmarked to run the English department, has betrayed them. The screenshots of Micah's communications are damning now the bosses are scrambling. Micah is locked in an office room. Alone.

[Micah]

Yeah. And then he said that. Okay, I will be asking five people to monitor you. To monitor what? Your action. Yeah.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Through the night.

[Micah]

Through the night. Yeah.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Micah can't sleep. He lies there in the dark, every muscle tense, mind racing through every possible outcome. Not. None of them are good. Just across the hallway, Ava lies wide awake, too terrified and powerless.

[Ava]

Felt like my brain was just had a blockage.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Late that night, a guard comes into her room, and he asks her to follow him. He leads her through the compound into a back room where the boss is waiting. The boss is cold and calculated. He explains the situation to Ava. Micah's little stunt has cost them. They had to pay off the authorities to cover it up. Now they need to recover the money. She's told there are options.

[Ava]

Your boyfriend has a choice of being sold to Vietnam, bound at the border of Vietnam, or to pay up this 11,000.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

AVA reiterates that they just don't have that money. But the thought of Micah being sent so far away, it's. It's unthinkable.

[Ava]

So she tells him, I can't choose any of this. We don't want any of this.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

This doesn't come as a surprise to the boss. He nods. And then he offers up a third option.

[Ava]

He can be sent to my friend's company that is close by.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

The boss's friend's company is here in Siannikville. But this offer comes with a condition.

[Ava]

But you have to work here forever.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Forever?

[Ava]

Forever.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

If Ava wants to keep him safe, she has to stay. The implications of this are staggering. She belonged to them. As if to sweeten the deal, he offers her one final thing. If she agrees, they won't hurt him.

[Ava]

If you stay here forever, then he wouldn't get beaten up. I didn't believe him, but I felt there was no choice.

[Micah]

You said.

[Ava]

I said I will willingly stay. And it's better that he goes to stay with your friend.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

The deal is made.

[Micah]

Open your eyes. What can you see around?

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

From Unherd and Cadence Productions, this is season two of the fight of my life. Escaping Scam City. The story of love, real love, in a city built on faking it. This is the story of Micah and Ava thrown into the fight of their lives and of those who have chosen to come alongside them and make it their fight too. Episode 4 the City of Fort Calling Men DV Casino Day 22 in the morning, the Boss returns to the room where Micah's being held one last time. Micah pleads with the boss to let him and Ava go home, and he.

[Micah]

Said, you cannot go home. We will be selling you.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Guards take Micah back to his room and watch as he packs his things. He stuffs clothes into his bag, hands shaking. Then he's led out past the rows of desks, the glowing monitors, the place he spent a month longing to leave. He never imagined he would leave for something unknown, something that might be worse. He never imagined that he would leave without Ava. The guards unlock the door that opens to the hallway. Just before they push Micah through, he sees Ava. Their eyes lock momentarily and Micah wants to run to her, to say something, anything. But before he can, the guards grip his arms and move him along. He's taken down to the casino floor, hurried past the poker tables and finally out the door. A car is waiting. The door to the backseat opens and he climbs in. They drive in silence for about 15 minutes. Micah stares out the window, watching the world slide by. They pass a roundabout with two enormous golden lions and then they have left downtown Siennockville behind. Now the view outside his window is scrubland, red earth and a herd of grazing goats. Then on the horizon, something rises. A dense cluster of buildings, boxy, uniform, like a small city of its own.

[Micah]

That actually was Chinatown. The people there called Chinatown.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

The car drives into the heart of Chinatown, then slows and turns toward a massive walled compound.

[Micah]

Whole compound was around like 25 building and then each building was around third floor. The building was surround the wire kind of like prison wire.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

It's sinister and imposing. The driver turns to Micah. Welcome to kaibo. Kaibo Day 1 the operation at Kaibo.

[Micah]

Dwarfs the entrance was very big. It can fit ever for two lens in two lengths out there are more.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Buildings, more walls and more guards.

[Micah]

The entrance have around 10 security guard them was wearing gray uniform. Some of them have using guns and and then got the electric baton.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Micah is taken to block 5.

[Micah]

My block is quite far abate so need to walk around 10 minutes to arrive my block. Once I arrive my block is around 12 level.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

He's given a tour of sorts of his building. DV's operations, work and sleep were contained on the fourth floor. But the operation at Kaibo spreads over multiple floors.

[Micah]

Working level was second and fourth. Second and fourth? Yeah.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

So on the second through the fourth levels. How many different offices would there be?

[Micah]

It was a lot.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

These two work floors on level two and four each have five conference rooms.

[Micah]

Each room can fit around 50 person.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Micah's bedroom is on the seventh floor and he shares it with nine other men.

[Micah]

When I arrived the seventh floor, I was sure my room was very tiny room and five bunk beds and just only a balcony, a room and a small toilet.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

There is one floor that he isn't shown, floor three.

[Micah]

So we can go to that floor.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Micah gets a brief moment to speak with a local, an air conditioning repair man who's been in the compound before. Micah asks him if he knows what's on the third floor. The man is reluctant to answer, but then drops his voice to a whisper. The third floor, he says, is the punishment floor.

[Micah]

And then I just asked him, did you saw a lot of people been beaten or something like that? He said that it's very normal. It's very normal. He said.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Wow.

[Micah]

Yeah.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Micah's heart sinks. If escaping DV had seemed difficult, escaping Kaibo looks to be impossible. The night after we visited dv, we went back out into Siannikville, this time to find Kaibo. During the day, the city is quiet grey, a little drab. Kids and stray dogs run around in the streets. But at night, the city comes alive. Everywhere I looked, I saw neon lights, video billboards, luxury cars blasting music. On the main beach road, couples, young families crowded the boardwalk. We took a left and then a right, and then suddenly we were in a much quieter street. Dara, remember, he's the Cambodian journalist who is showing us around, instructed our driver to park the car and we all hopped out. During his time inside, Micah had secretly taken a photo of an illustrated map of Kaibo, and that's what we were using to guide us. So can you show me?

[Micah]

So here, this is where we are now.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

So we're walking up here.

[Micah]

This is the road here.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

The road we walked down ran alongside a high compound wall.

[Ava]

There's guards everywhere.

[Micah]

That's it.

[Ava]

There's guards everywhere.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

These guards in grey uniforms looked up at us as we passed. Their stairs were sharp, watchful, and it really did feel like we didn't belong, like we shouldn't be there. Starting to feel dodgy.

[Micah]

We pull a ping.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

We passed a huge metal gate, tightly shut. As Micah said, two lanes in, two lanes out. The gate was manned by more guards, at least five of them, their hands resting on holstered guns.

[Micah]

So, yes, yes. So this is the entrance, Castle over there, and then this Is the road here?

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Dara led us to a kind of alley that bordered the compound. It felt like we were walking around a walled city. Inside was about 25 buildings. Based on what Micah told us about the building. Building makeup, it means that in this complex, there's between 12,000 and 30,000 people working at any given time. And yet from where we were, from the outside, it felt like a ghost town. So we're going to come around to the back of Building 5. Building 5. That was where Micah had been held. Over the compound wall. We could see it clearly. So that was his building, the one in the corner there? Yeah. Bars all over everything. We were within meters of the place where Micah had endured some of the darkest days of his life. And suddenly it all felt so disturbingly real. Most of the upper floors were dark, but draped across the balconies, laundry hung out to dry. There was something quietly devastating about it, a sign that there were people, lots of them, still living in those rooms. Whatever business was being run out of Kaibo was very clearly still going on without us realizing. Dara had gone to talk to one of the security guards roaming the perimeter, and now he came back.

[Micah]

So I talked to the guard here. He told me, like, yeah, sometime we arrested back recapture the people who have escaped. Some people die. Falling down, die. Some can. So why.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

I know the audio wasn't great in that last clip. Basically what he was saying was that the guard had often arrested people that were escaping and often seen people fall and die, although some do survive. He's seen that. He's seen that.

[Micah]

The guard. So I talked to the guard.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Oh, boy. It's horrible to think about, isn't it? Are the people trapped in scamming compounds really so desperate to escape that they're willing to jump out of the buildings? Or is it some kind of punishment? What Dara said next was chilling. He said that on average, every week, there was a report of at least one person in Siannockville falling to their death. Sometimes several people died in a week. He told us he remembered one week where a death was reported every single day. Indeed, the very next morning, we saw a local report made that just an hour before we were there, a person had jumped and died. And in Jake's experience, yeah, it's really.

[Jake Sims]

Just the ones that can't be covered up that make it into the news.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

I understand now why locals have given Kaibo a deeply disturbing nickname, the city of falling men. Kaibo.

[Ava]

Day two.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Micah waits until the room is clear. Quietly, he reaches beneath his thin mattress on the top bunk, pulls out his hidden phone and powers it on. Thankfully, even after everything that happened at dv, the phone was never discovered. It's his only remaining link to Ava. He must use it with great caution.

[Micah]

The whole building was got the cctv.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

There's a new message from Ava. What are we gonna do? And this time Micah has no answer. Kaibo Day 3 the head boss in Kaibo is quite young, Chinese and in his mid-30s. He's very tall with yellow teeth from chewing tobacco. He doesn't shout or swear, but there's something about him that Micah finds terrifying.

[Micah]

Yeah, I worry about like making him angry. Yeah, I really worry about that. So I scared I just keep in silence in front of him.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Today, for the first time, the boss approaches Micah. He says that Micah owes him $11,000, the amount the boss had to pay to purchase Micah from dv. Micah won't receive a salary or any money at all until he works off that debt. And the boss knows that the reason Micah was sold was because he asked for help. He warns Micah not to even think about doing something like that again.

[Micah]

If you ask him to help, we will be sold you to the Myanmar. He told me that. And before you go to Myanmar, we will be like electric shot and then beaten you first. And we will lock you to the dark room until you've been sold. The day you've been sold.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Kaibo Day 5 days at Kaibo follow the same bleak routine.

[Micah]

We wake up at the 9am and going down to the ground floor to eat our breakfast. And then once we arrive to the office, we need to sing a song first to like energize our full day to like wake up our body.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

The song is chosen each morning by a supervisor and failure to sing it has consequences.

[Micah]

If we didn't sing loudly, we will be like make the push up around 10 times.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Similar punishments are imposed for yawning each day.

[Micah]

Who was yawning three times and saw by the supervisor, it will be cut $50 from your salary.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

The workday officially starts at 10am each day.

[Micah]

We need to chart the new person around like 10 until 15% the new people.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

And the work continues without a pause.

[Micah]

Until 5pm 5pm we need to go to the ground floor to eat our lunch. And then 6pm we start walking until 9, 9:30, 9:13. So we going down again to eat our dinner. If the people who didn't achieve the target after 9:30, after we eat the dinner, we will be going back to the office to work until we achieve the target until 12 midnight. Yeah, 12 midnight. If we didn't achieve the target. If we achieve the target, we just eat the dinner and then go back to the room to sleep.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Kaibo Day 7. Its Micah's first Saturday in Kaibo and today the routine is different. He and the other workers are allowed to leave Block 5 and go down to the central area of the compound.

[Micah]

Just allow at the Saturday, Saturday night inside the compound only. We can move around, but we cannot move to another building. We cannot go to another building. We just only at the middle of the compound, which was the supermarket, the barbershop, the masa shop, something like that.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

With shops and restaurants inside the main compound walls. Kaibo is designed to be entirely self sufficient.

[Micah]

Everything inside.

[Ava]

So you never have to leave.

[Micah]

Yeah, correct.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Micah needs toothpaste and a toothbrush. But since he doesn't earn a salary, the purchase is simply added to his debt. The workers are given 30 minutes to run their errands before the supervisor rounds them up again. It's time for the weekly team dinner.

[Micah]

So the boss will retreat us, treat all of the company to eat at there and then drink some beer there. Yeah.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

So it takes you out for Saturday.

[Micah]

Night drinks, not only inside the compound.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Wow. It's designed to feel normal. Going out to dinner, having a beer with colleagues. But Micah has never felt so alone.

[Micah]

I didn't make any friends because I can't trust anyone inside there.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Kaibo Day 24. One of Micah's roommates, the one sleeping directly below him, has angered the boss in a sort of surprise attack. The the boss and one of the guards storm their room and pull the man to his feet. They handcuff him to the bed frame.

[Micah]

Then using the electric shock at my eyes. Two, not one. Two.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

So you got tasered by two tasers at one time?

[Micah]

Yeah. The boss take one, the Cambodian security take one.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

And you had to watch this?

[Micah]

I just like I just closed my blanket and. Oh my God. Oh my God. Yeah.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Micah's roommate is held in the darkroom for five days, given no food and only a single bottle of water. At the end of the five days, he doesn't come back to work. Micah thinks he's been sold to another compound, but he can't be sure. Workers who have been in Caibo for longer tell him that far worse things have happened to people who step out of line.

[Micah]

They may be like. From my experience, they will be like selling to the. To the black market to sell the organ or something like that. Which I heard about that. Yeah. It can't be sold, we will be bird. I mean like throw into the sea or something else. He had said that.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Up until now, one of the only silver linings to life in Kaibo has been that Micah has a view of the sea from the tiny balcony in his room. But after his roommate disappears, he stops looking at the water. Kaibo Day 29. Micah doesn't know how much longer he can survive. So far, his language abilities have made him useful to the boss, but he can't bring himself to scam people. He sits at his computer and pretends to work, but he's not hitting his targets. And it's only a matter of time until the boss grows tired of his excuses. He is slowly but surely being drained of hope.

[Micah]

I really think that I never be came out again. I think I. I might be like die at there because in my mind I keep thinking that I don't want to scam any innocent people. Yeah, sorry. I really think I might be dead there.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Micah makes the decision to try to escape one more time. The outer wall of the massive compound where Micah was held isn't just made of concrete. It's also built from a long row of retail shops, gyms, hairdressers, restaurants. But when we went there, almost everything looked closed and almost everything seemed shut off to the outside. I say almost everything because right by the gated entrance was yet another casino. While everything else was dark and lifeless, its lights blazed in the night and its doors were wide open. Perhaps somewhat foolishly, we assumed it must be open to the public. So we walked inside. And what we found was bizarre. While DV Casino back in the heart of Siennockville was packed and bustling, this place was completely empty. No customers, just 30 or 40 casino workers sitting at their tables, cards neatly laid out, waiting for a game that wasn't coming. The moment we stepped inside, every head turned toward us. As Carrie Anne later put was like a record scratch moment. A record scratch moment. It was probably the most unsettled I felt the entire trip. And we got out of there as quickly as possible. This whole visit to Kaibo left me shaken. It was all so obvious what was taking place. I could understand kind of how the scamming operation at DV could get away with it. Operating an illegal business from the fourth floor of a casino was one thing, but Kaibo was another beast entirely. It was a 20,000 person open air prison. And every week people in that prison died. Why wasn't the Cambodian government stepping in? The answer is disturbing.

[Jason Tower]

In Southeast Asia, where you have Industrial scale scam syndicates. There are elites in all of these countries that are directly partnering with the Chinese crime groups, with the Chinese mafia groups to make all this happen.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

That's the voice of Jason Tower, a fellow at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and an Expert with over 20 years of experience on peace and security issues in Southeast Asia.

[Jason Tower]

And I think of all countries in the region, Cambodia is one of the most egregious in that it actually has given advisory positions and official titles to individuals that are effectively criminal kingpins. You also see where direct relatives of the ruling family are involved in the ownership of some of the compounds, ownership of some of the financial tools that are used to launder and move the money.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

This is not exactly a secret either. In fact, In May of 2024, just two weeks before I traveled to Sienncville, there was a rather ironic story in the press. The United nations had to reschedule the launch of an anti human trafficking project in Cambodia. And the reason? Because it turned out that the hotel where the launch was to be held was owned by a Cambodian senator with strong ties to human trafficking. In particular, guess what? Forced scamming operations.

[Jake Sims]

The rabbit hole here goes on and on and on all the way to the bottom, or we should say all the way to the top of this government.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Of course, forced scamming is not just a Cambodian issue. Over the past few years, these large scale scamming factories, it's hard to know what else to call them, have popped up in Myanmar, Laos, the Philippines, Dubai, Africa, the list goes on and on.

[Jake Sims]

But in Cambodia, well, so experts today estimate that in Cambodia alone, scamming is at least a $12 billion a year industry and that's approaching what would be equivalent to half the country's gdp.

[Micah]

A landmark report has accused Cambodia's ruling party of actively running what could be.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

The world's most powerful criminal network fuelling.

[Micah]

A multi billion dollar cyber scam industry.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Built on human trafficking and state protection.

[Micah]

The US government funded study warns that C Southeast Asia's scam economy centred in.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Cambodia now rivals the scale of entire national economies. And given how lucrative and powerful they've become, the crime syndicates are now almost.

[Micah]

Quote, too big to fail.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

That little audio grab is from Australia's ABC national news aired in May of 2025 just before this podcast was launched. And the landmark report they're referencing, it was authored by none other than Jacob Sims, Jake. This is Jake's area of deep expertise and we are lucky to have a front row seat to some of his latest findings. I asked Jake to walk us through what he's been working on and what he's uncovered.

[Jake Sims]

So the report is titled Policies and Patterns. And it's a deep dive into the emergence and drivers of this exact criminal industry in Cambodia. And it's also an exploration about what can be done by people around the world who care about it and are impacted by it. And as a part of the study, I spoke to over 50 of the world's leading experts on what we might call the state crime nexus in Cambodia. And one of the key contributions of this report is the first ever comprehensive mapping of the really vast array of mechanisms of support provided by the Cambodian government for this industry.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

I asked Jake how this came to be.

[Jake Sims]

So when you look at the history going back for four decades, this is a regime that was formed out of civil war and brutality and very, very limited economic opportunities. And emerging from that context, the ruling party has specialized from day one in really predatory, extractive, often outright criminal industries. And so up to this point, we know that the government has been able to retain control over the various security services of the country, the military, the police, law enforcement, because of how much money they've been able to consistently and reliably provide them through these predatory and criminal industries. And effectively, when scamming came along, it supercharged all of this.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Now, just as a reminder, Jake spent several years in Cambodia on the ground doing counter trafficking work. And during that time, there were real wins and the work was getting done in partnership with the Cambodian government.

[Jake Sims]

It is absolutely the case that there have been ways over the years of working with the government on certain issues, like human trafficking, at least to some degree of reasonable closeness.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

But when it came to the issue of forced scamming, what Jake encountered was something entirely different.

[Jake Sims]

From day one, the government was highly combative to any efforts to approach them with cases of what we now call forced scamming or forced criminality into the cyber scam industry. And their primary mode of responding to this issue was to deny the existence to the issue, to obscure its reality, or to just outright repress the activists who are responding to it. And, you know, trafficking groups, human rights, civil society groups, journalists, embassies, you name it, we were all told, and actually are still being told, this isn't trafficking, stay in your lane.

[Jason Tower]

And this is across the board. I mean, it doesn't really matter which country is coming in or which international agency is coming in to raise these issues with Cambodia. It doesn't matter if it's the United nations, if it's ASEAN if it's Thailand, if it's China, if it's the us Whoever does it is going to get the full wrath of the Cambodian government.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

It was around the time that Micah and Ava found themselves stuck in Cambodia that a growing community of NGO workers, reporters and activists, Jake among them, first started digging further into the issue. What they began to see was chilling.

[Jake Sims]

Yeah, I mean, basically that the evidence was starting to emerge that what was going on there was more than just your garden variety corruption. This is more than just a few bad actors high up in the government involved in some sort of racket. This industry scamming had become likely the government's biggest source of revenue. So this is the primary way that the ruling elite were supporting themselves, propping up their ruling strategy. And in a very real sense, this is the thing that was keeping them in power. And that's still the case, is absolutely still the case. It's easily the largest, most lucrative industry in the entire country, and that is way beyond the mandate of my former ngo, or any other NGO for that matter. It's. It's totally uncharted territory.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

It's a lot to take in, isn't it? As we walked away from Kaibo with the luxury of being able to leave it all behind, I noticed a Pakistani restaurant as one of the options laid out for the men and women inside the compound. Do you remember Amir from episode two? The Pakistani man we met on the plane? He had sent me a text a couple of days later, and it was a good reminder of the human cost at the bottom of all these dynamics of governments and systems. Here's what it said. And remember, English is definitely not his first language. Hi, how are you? He wrote. I replied that I was well and asked how he was. I am not well, he said, accompanied with that pensive face. Emoji. My stomach dropped. Oh no. Why not? I asked. He replied with the words on work and then a broken heart emoji. I asked, is the job not what you were told it was? And then he replied with this, what to do? This is our life. Kaibo, day 33. Once again, Micah is planning his escape. First thing in the morning before his roommates wake up and last thing at night after they fall asleep. He searches for someone who can help, then immediately deletes his search history. He Googles Cambodia NGO scamming. He Googles fake job trap help. Eventually he finds an interview that someone has given online. An American man working in Cambodia and speaking out against force scamming. Micah doesn't have a phone Number for this man. He has to think of another way. One night, he installs Twitter. The download feels like it takes forever, but at last the app opens. Micah types into the search box, looking for the man. The first few results aren't right, but there, halfway down the page, is the person he's looking for. The man is the Cambodia country director for a major global ngo. And? And on Twitter, he calls out the evils of forced scamming. He knows about the torture, the threats, the deaths. All the things that Micah has seen in the past terrible months. The things he thought perhaps nobody outside the compounds knew about. This man is saying out loud. As Micah scans the man's posts, he feels an unexpected connection. He is no longer invisible. Here, he thinks, is somebody who understands. He decides to send the man a message. The man's name is Jacob Sims, or as we know him, Jake.

[Jake Sims]

The message I received on Twitter read like this. We are being forced work as scammers in KB Chinatown in Cukville, Cambodia. Please rescue us and save us. Them Chinese kidnapped. Electronic shock, Human trafficking, beating imprisonment. We don't want work with them. Force us work as scammer. Rescue us as soon as help us for Jake.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

Everything about this message, the way it came in the disjointed language, it all feels suspicious. Like maybe he's being baited.

[Jake Sims]

Yeah, I mean, everyone at this point was getting a little bit paranoid.

[Narrator (Rich Thompson)]

He'd never been contacted directly like this before and his instinct is to hit delay. The Fight of My Life is brought to you by Cadence Productions in partnership with Unherd. This series Escaping Scam City was written by Kavya Visvanathan, Nikki Florence Thompson and me. Your host, Rich Thompson. The series producers are Lydia Bowden, Jake Sims, Ben Field, Carrie Anne Tilson, Kavya Visvanathan and Rich Thompson. Our theme song is See Me Fly by Rosa. Our incredible translator is Corinne Powell. Thank you so much, Corinne. Additional sound design by Brendan Ridley. Unherd's advocacy and support for this project was led by Lydia Bowden, Carrie Ann Tilson and Laura Entwistle. With a massive thanks to their generous community of supporters and with a special shout out to Wen, Dane and Val. We're so grateful for all the various contributors to this series. And of course, any views and opinions expressed by individuals are their own. This series is based on the true story of Micah and Ava, whose names have been changed to protect their identities. Every effort has been made to preserve the integrity of their experiences. In some cases, events have been edited, condensed or reordered for clarity. Safety or narrative flow. While we've worked hard to verify details, as with all first hand testimonies, some elements can be difficult to independently confirm. We are so thankful to Micah and Ava for telling their story and elevating this issue on behalf of countless other survivors. And finally, we're thankful to you for choosing to come on this journey with us. If you get a second to rate and review the podcast, we'd really appreciate it. We'll see you on the next episode.