The Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia (TRC) would like to inform the public as follows: Recently, the TRC has observed that a number of individuals have been advertising and providing services described as “account protection services” or “page protection services” on social media in exchange for the payment of a fee, claiming that they are able to protect or guarantee that a user’s account or page will not be disabled, suspended, deleted, or lost. In many cases, such individuals further claim to have direct connections with the platform companies, or to possess special technical tools, in order to appear more credible. The TRC would like to clarify that any claim to be able to guarantee the protection of an account or page in exchange for a fee constitutes the dissemination of false information, which may contain the elements of the offence of fraud and may give rise to liability under the laws in force. Such advertising generally aims to create fear in order to induce users to pay money or to disclose confidential information — such as telephone numbers, email addresses, passwords, OTP codes, or page administration rights — which may lead to serious consequences, including:

• Permanent loss of control over the account or page;
• Loss of money with no possibility of recovering compensation;
• Theft of personal or financial information;
• Use of the stolen account or page to carry out further fraud against the victim’s family, friends, and other followers. To protect themselves, the TRC advises members of the public to observe the following:
• Do not disclose passwords or OTP codes to any other person;
• Do not pay money to any person claiming to be able to protect, restore, or guarantee an account or page;
• Do not grant Admin or Editor rights over a page to any person who is not well known to you;
• Do not click on suspicious links or install applications from unknown sources;
• Do enable Two-Factor Authentication and clearly designate the administrators of your page. The use of social media accounts and pages must comply with the laws and regulations in force in the Kingdom of Cambodia. In parallel, users must also comply with the terms of use and community standards of each platform company, which constitute an agreement between the user and that platform company. Accordingly, the payment of a fee to any person cannot substitute for, exempt from, or reduce either of the above obligations. Should members of the public suspect that they have encountered fraudulent activity, or the provision of irregular services relating to the protection of social media accounts and pages, they are requested to report the matter to the TRC by telephone at 6789 during business hours, by email to info@trc.gov.kh, or via the Facebook page “និយ័តករទូរគមនាគមន៍កម្ពុជា - Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia”. The TRC will treat all reports as confidential.