A gated complex with multiple 10-story buildings in Vientiane city at the "Kilometer 16" area of the national road, which was alleged to house scam operations, on July 29, 2026 | Photo: Apichat Sopapong/Mekong Independent
In an article for Mekong Independent, Apichart Sopapong asserts that amid crackdowns, Laos’s scam operations have continued to proliferate in the capital city of Ventiane.
Vientiane — Between the rice fields of the northern outskirts of Laos’s capital, a narrow concrete side road leads away from the hum of traffic on Kaysone Phomvihane Avenue into a quiet but looming six-building complex, where a security guard sits at the front gate. Alienated by its surroundings of low-rise households, the 10-story buildings stand imposingly in the area, but they show no obvious signs of life inside.
When a reporter approached the gate on a motorbike, a group of men sitting opposite of the buildings saw and said “No. No. No.” One man crossed his arms to X gesture, in a warning against continuing further up the road. The reporter turned around and left.
The cybercrime industry has been known to take root in large special economic zones and border areas, but a surge of government arrests and a reporter’s conversations with residents show evidence that scam operations have nested amid everyday life in Laos’s capital city of Vientiane.
