In late December 2025, renewed fighting along the Thailand–Cambodia border created the first major shock to Cambodia’s compound-linked ecosystem. Armed clashes erupted again near Poipet and O’Smach after a temporary pause in hostilities, with artillery fire, air strikes, and ground engagements affecting border towns on both sides. International reports confirmed that commercial and residential areas close to the frontier were hit or placed at risk, prompting evacuations and t

Challenges of Modern Technology With advancements in technology, it feels like the world is moving so fast, that it's hard to keep up, something the lock down had a lot to do with. We are now in a time that customer service seems to almost completely have moved online, in an era that strongly resembles a cashless society and the accessibility of information is now frequently via QR codes. As someone who can no longer be considered the “younger generation,” I personally don't

At the London Fraud Forum Conference on the 20th of November 2025, Lou Baxter of Friends Against Scams said something so profound, "If you say something is too good to be true, then you're saying good things can't happen to that person." I've never thought about it that way, but she does have a point because it is an unhelpful statement that is quite frankly, albeit unintentionally, derogatory. The saying "common sense isn't common" is a statement I sometimes apply to myself

Ever heard of or used Travellers Cheques? Well, I'm definitely dating myself here, because I have to hold up my hand and say that I used them on my first trip to Thailand 17 years ago, and on my previous trips to the United States.  Having traveled extensively around the world both with family and alone, I considered myself to be very travel savvy. Now, what that really means was that I vacationed on a budget, “lived” like a local and didn't use a credit or debit card abroad.

For more than a year, 赵俊成 (Zhao Juncheng)  was a familiar name on Chinese social media. He did not become known through fame, controversy, or media interviews, but through repetition. His father appeared again and again on Douyin, publicly calling out his son’s name, pleading for information, asking strangers to remember him. Video after video, the same message, the same fear, the same unresolved absence. Over time, this persistence turned Zhao into a semi-famous individual o

Scam economies thrive because victims lose money at scale. Those losses are not incidental; they are the primary source of capital that sustains scam centers, laundering networks, and the broader infrastructure of transnational fraud. Without a steady inflow of victim funds, there would be no resources to operate compounds, pay operators, finance cross-border money movement, or absorb enforcement pressure. Forced labor and coercive recruitment emerge downstream as mechanisms

A recent story making the rounds was of 15-year-old Bryce Tate who tragically took his life 2 hours and 32 minutes after his first IG interaction with presumably a Nigerian Yahoo Boy under the guise of being a 17-year-old girl. Within minutes the "girl" forged a trusting relationship with Bryce, before sending him intimate pictures of "herself". When she requested pictures in return he immediately complied, only to then be told, "I have your nudes and everything needed to rui

When you use or hear the term, “sex worker”, is the first thing that comes to mind, “ This would be the perfect job for my family and friends?  What about when you’re considering a change of career path, is escort and Only Fans at the top of your list when job hunting?   I highly suspect that the answer to both of these questions is a resounding no, after all: 1.    How many jobs require drugs and alcohol to perform your duties?   The answer is none.   Often when people thro

Illicit migration across Southeast Asia has entered a new phase. What once appeared to be an informal workaround—dangerous, but navigable—has become a mechanism that systematically strips individuals of legal identity, jurisdictional protection, and institutional visibility. Smuggling today does not merely bypass the state; it renders the individual unlocatable within any state’s protective architecture. The outcome is not simply exploitation. It is disappearance. A recent ca

Are you single and looking for love? Have you recently been widowed, living alone in the UK with two adult children? Perhaps you are an Asian woman open to an interracial relationship? If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. Well, one eighty-year-old woman was exactly that. She believed she had found a real and authentic connection, only to be systematically groomed, manipulated, and deceived over the course of a year by a charismatic man claiming to be based in the Unite