We headed to Poipet, a northwestern Cambodian town on the border with Thailand.

Reporter / Stop here!

NNN Correspondent, Tanaka Junpei / It is believed that the base was here. When local authorities raided the building, they detained about 30 Japanese nationals.

There are iron bars on the windows.

You can see multiple security cameras as well.

About 30 Japanese nationals are believed to have been scamming people in Japan from this building.

Poipet sits at the west of Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, where the World Heritage Site Angkor Wat is located.

Locals working nearby said they had seen foreign nationals

Person working nearby / I saw police come two days ago.

Person working nearby / I have seen foreign nationals. I’m not sure where they are from.

According to investigators, the group consisted of about 50 people including foreigners.

About 30 of them are believed to be Japanese.

The base is believed to have been used as a “calling point” to make fraudulent phone calls in Japan, where the scammers pretended to be police officers. Computers and smartphones have been seized from the scene.

The base was identified after an informant provided information to the Aichi Prefectural Police.

The male informant applied for a part-time job through a major recruiting site in December 2024. He arrived in Cambodia via Thailand.

He is believed to have been involved in a fraud scheme in which he pretended to be a police officer.

According to the man, the building was surrounded by a wall and he had to pass through three gates to enter the premises.

There were guards at the gates and the cameras monitoring the inside of the building.

About eight Chinese nationals were forcing more than 20 Japanese nationals under their control to make the scam calls.

Instructions were given in Japanese and some in Chinese.

The male informant was not able to go outside the base until he finally returned to Japan.

On May 29…

NNN Correspondent, Tanaka Junpei / There are many casinos in Poipet, and we can see many tourists.

Poipet is considered unsafe.

NNN Correspondent, Tanaka Junpei / I feel like there are more people out at night than during the day. Another casino? The city really is full of casinos.

Perhaps due to Chinese investment...

NNN Correspondent, Tanaka Junpei / I see Chinese written everywhere. That’s also Chinese.

We were able to see many signs in Chinese.

There are believed to be several other scam groups based in the area.

According to the National Police Agency, 14 fraud bases that were conducting scams in Japan from Southeast Asia have been uncovered since 2019. Five of them were in Cambodia.

The Japanese nationals detained in Poipet are currently being held in a detention facility in Phnom Penh. They are expected to be deported to Japan as soon as the charges against them are confirmed.