A suspected online scam operation that was raided by police in Papua New Guinea last month is believed to have relocated to the Pacific island country in response to a crackdown on online fraud in Cambodia, local police have told OCCRP.

So far four Chinese citizens have been charged with human trafficking offences over the alleged scam center, which operated out of a luxury residential complex in PNG’s capital, Port Moresby. Police rescued 39 Indonesian workers in the raid who are suspected of being held against their will.

The suspected Port Moresby scam operation is the first of its kind in Papua New Guinea, a resource-rich but underdeveloped country of 11 million people. Experts have warned that small and poor states across the globe are at risk of turning into new bases for Asian syndicates that profit from the world’s $1 trillion a year online scam industry.

Cambodia has for years served as a center for massive scam compounds, many of which rely on trafficked workers, but international pressure since late last year has led the country’s authoritarian government to turn against the illicit industry. Thousands of scam operators have since left the country.

The recently raided scam operation “came into Papua New Guinea in June of this year basically escaping out from Cambodia,” Donald Yamasombi, the chief of special operations for the PNG police, told OCCRP.

He added that those working in the raided villa appeared to be targeting Indonesian victims online.

In addition to the four already arrested, Yamasombi said police were still looking for a fifth Chinese national who is believed to have played a leading role in the operation and who is likely still in hiding in Port Moresby.

“Yes, so he's the main kingpin, if you would like to call him that,” Yamasombi said, adding that local police were working with counterparts from Australia to crack electronic devices seized in the raid.

He said the raid highlighted the vulnerability of “relaxed” Pacific island states to the transnational criminal networks behind online scams.

“Given our type of living where we don't worry too much about what other people do… is I think a vulnerability that [people] with criminal minds can easily capitalize on.”