PHNOM PENH -- A new Amnesty International report released on Thursday accused five Cambodian security companies of helping operate scam compounds where workers were confined and subjected to violence, torture and sexual abuse.

The global human rights group said it reviewed more than 25,000 photos and videos posted by guards on 222 social media accounts and interviewed trafficking survivors, which then led it to identify five security firms operating at 23 scam compounds across the country.

Amnesty said military or police personnel were present at 22 of the 23 sites it identified, while five security firms were found operating at scam compounds: Leap Somnang Security, Security Response, ZD Security, Dara Security and Best Security. It called for investigations into the companies and their management.

"Investigations must assess and follow responsibility from the lowest ranks all the way upwards to the companies, including the managers and owners who recruited, deployed and controlled security guards at scamming compounds," said Agnes Callamard, Amnesty's secretary-general.

All the companies, except Dara Security, responded to Amnesty's findings and denied allegations of rights abuses or involvement in the scam industry. Nikkei Asia could not reach Sab Dara, the sole director listed for Dara Security.

Cambodia announced in August that it had closed all large scam compounds in the country after a yearlong crackdown at 832 sites across the country, which resulted in the arrest of around 3,400 individuals and the freeing of tens of thousands of confined or trafficked workers.

Amnesty's findings were based on evidence gathered during its investigation of the sector between December 2021 and June 2026 and do not necessarily indicate that the identified sites remain operational following the government's crackdown.

However, Cambodia faces pressure to investigate and prosecute senior government officials, businesspersons and politically-connected individuals allegedly linked to online fraud sites.

Cambodian tycoons and senators Ly Yong Phat, left, and Kok An attend a ceremony to mark International Anti-Drug Day in Phnom Penh in June 2012.

Two business tycoons who are also senators, Ly Yong Phat and Kok An have had international sanctions imposed on them for their involvement in scamming. Anti-scam commission boss Chhay Sinarith told Nikkei Asia in September that compounds linked to the two tycoons were under investigation.

The Interior Ministry, which is in charge of licensing security firms, sent a letter to Amnesty but did not address specific allegations against the five security firms and asked for the report to "not have negative effects" that affect the government's scam crackdown measures.

Jacob Sims, author of the independent report "Scam State Architecture" on Cambodia's scam industry, said the illicit sector could not have grown into a multibillion-dollar business without the protection of powerful elites.

"The scam economy in Cambodia is a textbook example of a top-down vertically integrated criminal protection racket," Sims said.

The United Nations and independent researchers estimate the scam economy grossed between $12.5 billion and $37 billion in revenue for Cambodia, according to Sims' report, often seeping into the formal economy.

The International Monetary Fund in a September report conducted a financial flows analysis with Swift financial transaction network data in Cambodia that showed large-scale cross-border flows that significantly deviated from normal patterns and could not be explained by legitimate trade and investment flows.

"The historic and present-day vacuum of accountability for Cambodia's elites has created a situation where the lines between the licit and illicit economies are profoundly blurred," Sims said. Ananth Baliga and Phoung Vantha are contributing writers.