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Police looking into S’pore firm luring job seekers to scam-linked Cambodian resort
Published Oct 08, 2025, 12:15 PMUpdated Oct 08, 2025, 02:27 PM
The exterior of Changting Network Technology's office at Paya Lebar Square. When The Straits Times visited on Sept 9, there was no one in.
ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI
Aqil Hamzah and Lok Jian Wen
SINGAPORE - The police are looking into a Singapore-based firm that has advertised online for jobs based here, only to later tell interviewees they would be working full-time at a Cambodian resort instead.
The facility, Koh Kong Resort, has been sanctioned by the United States Treasury Department for its links to its owner, a Cambodian businessman sanctioned in the US for ill-treating trafficked workers at online scam centres. The resort is also cited by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in a scam-related report.
The Singapore firm, Changting Network Technology, positions itself as a technology firm. It had advertised various roles on local and overseas job search sites, with the purported roles supposedly based in Singapore.
However, after candidates secure a job, they would be told by a hiring manager that they would be based at Koh Kong Resort instead.
When contacted, the police said reports against the company had been filed, and that they are looking into the matter.
The police also advised the public to check job offers, especially if there are requests that seem unrealistic or unusual, and to call the ScamShield Helpline (1799) if they are unsure if any job offer is real.
The Straits Times looked into the firm, after a foreigner asked in a Sept 6 post online if the company was legitimate.
The foreigner, whom ST is calling A, had applied for a senior customer service executive role which was listed on a foreign portal.
On Sept 11, he put ST in touch with the person who presented himself as Changting’s hiring manager.
ST, posing as foreign job seeker B, submitted a fake resume and, within an hour, was offered the senior customer service executive job, in a phone interview conducted in Mandarin. The pay offered was $5,000 a month.
The Singapore-based role supposedly entailed travelling across South-east Asia to meet clients, with a mandatory three-month training period in Cambodia.
The hiring manager sent B an offer letter, but did not request details for the application of a work visa, which is needed for foreigners working in Singapore. The salary offered in the document was also different from what was offered over the phone – US$2,800 (S$3,628).
PHOTO: SCREENGRAB
The hiring manager also gave B the street address where the training in Cambodia would be held – it matched that of Koh Kong Resort.
Things changed further on Sept 17, in a second phone interview with someone who was supposedly a supervisor at Changting. The call had been arranged by the hiring manager. In this call, the supervisor did not identify himself by name or designation.
Instead of three months of training in Cambodia, the supervisor said the role would require B to be permanently based there.
Also, the salary was slashed to $3,000, although food and accommodation – a room shared with five others – would be provided.
Following that second interview, the firm’s representatives pushed B for passport details and to sign the offer letter so that they could book air tickets. B did not sign the letter, or contact the company after that.
Foreign national A had a similar experience in their job application with the company, including the requirement for a training stint at Koh Kong Resort.
A received a job offer, but eventually did not sign the contract.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF ST READER
ST’s checks show that Koh Kong Resort is owned or controlled by Cambodian businessman Ly Yong Phat, who has been sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for his role in “serious human rights abuse related to the treatment of trafficked workers subjected to forced labour in online scam centres” since September 2024.
Both Mr Ly and Koh Kong Resort have been placed in the department’s “specially designated nationals and blocked persons” list, ST’s checks showed.
Those on the list have their assets in the US frozen, and are barred from any transactions with people in the US. They are also blacklisted from the US banking system.
Reuters in June
reported that the resort’s parent company LYP Group had been cited by the UNODC as an example of a scam centre operating under the guise of legitimate businesses.
New online gambling and cyber-fraud hubs have been constructed in recent years along the coast of the Koh Kong Province, where Koh Kong Resort is located, while existing ones have also expanded, according to the UN report.
Checks by ST on Sept 10 also showed a job listing by Changting Network Technology on the MyCareersFuture job portal, for a digital advertising manager. It was put up on Aug 18, and job seekers had till Sept 17 to apply.
Changting Network Technology had put up an ad on the MyCareersFuture job portal in search of a digital advertising manager. The job offered a monthly salary between $6,000 and $10,000 and required at least two years of relevant experience.
PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM MYCAREERSFUTURE
The role would pay between $6,000 and $10,000, and required at least two years of relevant experience. There were at least 14 applicants before the listing expired.
ST posed as Singaporean job seeker C and applied for the role with a fake resume on Sept 12. Within six hours, a woman with a Singapore-registered phone number called to conduct an interview.
There was no mention of training in Cambodia in the 11-minute call, which was conducted in English, but the company’s representative later said that overseas training would be first on the agenda if C was hired.
The job would require C to work from its office in Paya Lebar, five days a week, C was told during the interview.
The job application fell through, however, after the company’s hiring manager said C would not be a good fit.
ST’s checks on the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) portal show that Changting Network Technology is an active firm, and was incorporated here on April 8, 2019.
There are no other companies registered in Singapore with the name Changting, according to Acra’s portal.
Based on Changting’s business records, its sole director is a Chinese national, while the secretary is a Singaporean with a Chinese name.
Changting markets itself on its website as a technology company offering services ranging from artificial intelligence to cyber security and app development to clients worldwide.
ST discovered several inconsistencies in the information about the firm found online.
Its website, created on July 24, 2025, lists the postal code of Singapore Land Tower at 50 Raffles Place as its address, without specifying a unit number.
Business records, however, indicate that its address is an office space in Paya Lebar Square.
No one was present and the lights were not turned on when ST visited the premises at Paya Lebar Square in the early afternoon on Sept 9. The company’s name and logo were clearly seen beside the main door of the unit.
The logo matched the one in the contract issued to the foreign national A, and the job listing on MyCareersFuture, with a search online yielding no other results.
A person working in an office on the same floor as Changting said he had hardly seen anyone inside Changting’s office.
Phone numbers associated with the firm were also dead ends.
A landline number included on its website was invalid, while a mobile number listed on its LinkedIn account belongs to a private security company, whose logo was used as the display picture of the WhatsApp account associated with this number.
A representative of the security firm told ST that the number is used to provide internet connectivity for a closed-circuit television camera.
The only other avenue to contact Changting Network Technology was an e-mail address found on its website. This was also invalid because its domain could not be found.
MTL, quickly apply!!
