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UK sanctions Cambodia-based scam center, crypto platform
Britain has sanctioned Legend Innovation, which it says runs Cambodia’s largest scam compound, and Xinbi, a Chinese-language cryptocurrency marketplace used by fraud networks.
The move is part of efforts to curb online scams affecting people in the UK.
The Foreign Office said the scam centers have targeted victims worldwide through schemes such as fake investments and romance scams, and it estimated the newly identified compound, known as “#8 Park,” could hold up to 20,000 trafficked workers.
The UK also sanctioned three individuals and said the measures will freeze several London properties linked to the network, including a £9 million (US$11.9 million) penthouse near Westminster.
The move follows coordinated UK and US action last year against Cambodia’s Prince Group that British ministers said contributed to regional raids and closures of scam operations.
🔗 Source: Reuters
🧠 Food for thought
Implications, context, and why it matters.
### The anatomy of a $20 billion scam-as-a-service provider
- UK sanctions target an operation that runs at huge scale, with the Xinbi marketplace alone handling an estimated ~$19.9 billion in transactions from 2021 to 2025 1.
- That volume puts it among the largest illicit online marketplaces on record, offering a one-stop shop for fraud networks 2.
- Xinbi sells stolen personal data plus satellite internet equipment that scammers use to reach victims, and UK authorities say it also helped launder cryptoassets stolen by North Korea 2.
- The UK alleges these services enable and profit from human rights abuses, so it used its Global Human Rights sanctions regime (a UK framework for penalising people and organizations linked to serious human rights abuses) and also targeted entities tied to compounds like “#8 Park,” which the UK estimates could hold up to 20,000 trafficked workers 3.
### Criminals are now building their own tech stacks
- Sanctions on platforms like Xinbi create a hard test for UK and US law enforcement and policymakers because these groups tend to survive disruption.
- After Telegram (a widely used messaging app) removed channels and accounts tied to Xinbi, the marketplace rebuilt its presence, spun up new Telegram channels, and kept operating while activity grew 3.
- That shift pushes groups from using third-party platforms to building their own, copying some payments infrastructure onto an alternative messaging app and launching a payment app called XinbiPay; authorities also cite a messaging application called SafeW 3.
- Bringing more tools in-house may help block outside interference, which supports efforts to target the financial and technical infrastructure that props up the broader scam ecosystem 2.
