For decades, Cambodia has battled dreadful perceptions – real or otherwise – as a crime hub, a sunny place for shady characters looking for somewhere to cool their heels, or as a comfortable place to practice their arts of deception.

The official response is anger and denial, never acceptance, and heaven help the reporters who dare to reveal an unwanted blight into the public eye.

And so it was with the Cambodian authorities, backed by online outbursts of nationalistic rage from government-friendly NGOs, and media outlets, all of whom demanded an apology from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) after it quoted diplomats as describing the country as “Scambodia.”

That story, published on April 19, was headlined: “How Cybercrime Became a Leading Industry in ‘Scambodia’ – Crime syndicates in Cambodia corrupt officials, enslave workers, and fleece victims worldwide.”

The WSJ did not apologize, nor remove the article. It did publish a protest letter from Cambodian Information Minister Neth Pheaktra, who argued such crimes are “transnational and largely foreign-led” as opposed to an established domestic industry.

True enough. It’s no secret that Chinese organized crime was behind the industrialization of what would have once been obliquely described as a boiler room operation. Prince Group and Chen Zhi laid all that bare after the U.S. Justice Department seized $15 billion in assets.

But “Scambodia” is an old term and its resurrection coincided with a slew of arrests and prison terms for government critics who spoke out on social media as former opposition leader Kem Sokha lost his appeal against a 27-year house arrest sentence for treason.

On the international stage, Cambodia has a high profile for all the wrong reasons.

The WSJ was not the first to coin the term “Scambodia.” It has long been a derogatory term used by some expats. Author Brandon Suggs published “Scambodia – The Dark Side of Paradise” in 2019, noting that Cambodia was not just known for its temples, beaches, and cheap beer.

He exposed more than 40 scams that travelers and expats have experienced, which warranted its reputation as the Wild West of Asia. His 62-page book aside, the term has also all too often been associated with offenders from abroad and a litany of crimes.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, journalists wrote of Cambodia as a safe haven for pedophiles who preyed on children along the capital’s riverfront. Among the most notable child sex offenders were British glam-rocker Gary Glitter and Russian investor Alexander Trofimov.

Long gone practices like gun running, theft of Khmer artifacts, and gemstone smuggling initially varnished this sordid reputation as did narcotics, illegal logging and counterfeit alcohol, tobacco, computer software and major brands – handbags, garments and, shoes – which persist to this day.

Hambali set-up house in Phnom Penh prior to masterminding the 2002 Bali bombing. Viktor Bout, once the biggest arms dealer in the world, did time in Cambodia, as did pasty-faced computer geek Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, co-founder of the file-sharing website The Pirate Bay.

Warg was famously found in Phnom Penh in 2012, hiding from a Swedish arrest warrant.

North Korean-trained assassins met in Cambodia where they rehearsed for their 2017 murder of Kim Jong-nam, the half- brother of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, by smearing the VX nerve agent over his face in a Malaysian airport.

All were made possible by the input of organized crime working from abroad. It was the same for the illicit, rapacious trade in babies on the international surrogacy market and the Australian bikie gangs who found a home and went into the money laundering business.

Importantly, their ability to hide, plot, and thrive in Cambodia was only made possible by the indulgence or complacency of the local authorities.

Obviously, Cambodia is not the only country to endure such afflictions and much of it can be traced back to the sheer poverty inflicted from a 31-year civil war that did not end until 1998 and included the genocidal, Year Zero policies of the Khmer Rouge.

But almost three decades later it remains a stand out with its credentials poisoned by the notorious scam compounds and human trafficking that have flourished since the COVID-18 pandemic resulting in the theft of tens of billions of dollars from around the world.

This is where the anger over “Scambodia” is misdirected in a country that has long prided itself as being “a small country with a big heart.” Such angst must focus on the criminals and enablers who earned Cambodia this epithet and not the journalists or diplomats who simply reported it.