Every few weeks, fireworks light up the night sky in Cambodia, set off by scammers to salute their biggest swindles.

       By the time the shells pop and crackle, somebody’s life savings are probably gone. Maybe the victim fell for an online romance scam or bought into a fake cryptocurrency exchange. Whatever the scheme, the money has vanished, sucked into a complex money-laundering network that moves billions of dollars at a dizzying speed.

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       The F.B.I., China’s Ministry of Public Security, Interpol and others have tried to combat scammers, who ？often lurk on social media and dating apps, luring people into bogus financial schemes or other ruses. Telecom companies have blocked numbers. Banks have issued repeated warnings.

       Yet the industry persists because its money-laundering operation is so efficient. Unsuspecting victims worldwide lose tens of billions of dollars each year, money that must be scrubbed of its criminal origins and deposited into the legitimate economy. The money-laundering system is so hydra-headed that when governments strike it in one place, it pops up in another.

       This underworld peeks out in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, home to a global clearinghouse for money launderers. It can be glimpsed, too, in the coastal city of Sihanoukville, a notorious refuge for fraudsters. Scammers ply their trade from call centers, operating in fortified compounds or on the upper floors of unfinished high-rises. Seaside restaurants are packed with money launderers and other criminals doing business over spicy Chinese food.

       The map locates the Cambodian capital city of Phnom Penh, in south-central Cambodia, as well as the southern coastal city of Sihanoukville.

       CHINA

       MYANMAR

       VIETNAM

       THAILAND

       LAOS

       thailand

       Detail area

       CAMBODIA

       Phnom Penh

       Gulf of

       Thailand

       Sihanoukville

       VIETNAM

       5o miles

       By The New York Times

       Imagine you’re a scammer, cheating people out of their life savings. You need a way to get money out of countries around the world. You need a matchmaker.

       A matchmaker is a trusted intermediary who will shepherd your loot home. A good matchmaker has a worldwide network of people, known as mules, who can move money within hours.

       The money mule can be a person or a shell company that controls a local bank account or a cryptocurrency wallet.

       Once you find a matchmaker, he will deposit money into escrow, essentially ensuring he won’t run away with your money along the way.

       Now you are ready to start your scam.

       Let us say that you’ve tricked someone into sending you $40,000.

       Step 1: You, the scam boss, cut a deal with a matchmaker. For a U.S. scam, the matchmaker typically demands 15 percent of the proceeds for himself and his mules.

       Step 2: Your matchmaker finds the right mules for the job, and gets you a deal.

       Step 3: The matchmaker sends you the mule’s bank account or crypto wallet details. You send that information to your victim.

       Step 4: Your victim sends $40,000 to your money mule’s account.

       Step 5: The mule moves the money from one account to another account and eventually converts it to cryptocurrency.

       Step 6: Finally, the mule takes a cut for his services and sends the rest to the matchmaker. The matchmaker pays himself, and gives you $34,000.

       Scammer

       Matchmaker

       Money mules

       Money mules

       Victim

       Imagine you’re a scammer, cheating people out of their life savings. You need a way to get money out of countries around the world. You need a matchmaker.

       A matchmaker is a trusted intermediary who will shepherd your loot home. A good matchmaker has a worldwide network of people, known as mules, who can move money within hours.

       The money mule can be a person or a shell company that controls a local bank account or a cryptocurrency wallet.

       Once you find a matchmaker, he will deposit money into escrow, essentially ensuring he won’t run away with your money along the way.

       Now you are ready to start your scam.

       Let us say that you’ve tricked someone into sending you $40,000.

       Step 1: You, the scam boss, cut a deal with a matchmaker. For a U.S. scam, the matchmaker typically demands 15 percent of the proceeds for himself and his mules.

       Step 2: Your matchmaker finds the right mules for the job, and gets you a deal.

       Step 3: The matchmaker sends you the mule’s bank account or crypto wallet details. You send that information to your victim.

       Step 4: Your victim sends $40,000 to your money mule’s account.

       Step 5: The mule moves the money from one account to another account and eventually converts it to cryptocurrency.

       Step 6: Finally, the mule takes a cut for his services and sends the rest to the matchmaker. The matchmaker pays himself, and gives you $34,000.

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