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THREATS TO CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE IN IRAN CONFLICT

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How cybercrime became a leading industry in ‘Scambodia’

Phnom Penh, Cambodia (SethiZelo Phat / Unsplash)

By Gabriele Steinhauser and Patricia Kowsmann

A gold-hued skyscraper is rising above the traffic-clogged streets of the capital city on the Mekong River. The building is already Cambodia’s tallest structure — and a monument to the spoils generated by transnational cybergangs that have stolen billions of dollars from unsuspecting Americans and others worldwide. 

The skyscraper is being built by a company under sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department for its alleged connection to one of hundreds of scam operations that have cropped up across Cambodia.

Scam compounds, some the size of small towns, have housed enslaved workers doing the grunt work of online scams, posing as love interests, investors or police.

Read more at Wall Street Journal

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