Cambodia's government approved a draft law Friday that will hand down harsh sentences against fraudsters running cyberscam operations, a Minster told AFP.

Cambodia has emerged as a hotspot for crime syndicates running a multibillion-dollar fraud industry that sees scammers lure internet users globally into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments.

Global crackdown targets Southeast Asia's criminal scam networks

Largely concentrated in Southeast Asia, the global cyberscam industry has reached "industrial proportions", with estimates of its annual revenues as high as $64 billion, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

Some of the hundreds of thousands of people carrying out scams in the region are trafficked and held against their will, while others work voluntarily.