"I thought they were moving an office in," said Eng Somnang, 20, who owns a noodle soup shop directly opposite and watched them arrive early this month.
Police in the Cambodian capital accuse them of doing exactly that: setting up a criminal call center with more than 200 Chinese nationals to carry out a telephone and internet scam on victims in China.
According to reports, police raided the building on Wednesday to stop what they said was the latest operation of a type that has duped people out of billions of dollars - with scammers operating from countries that have good internet access and relaxed visa rules.
From a balcony of the building in Phnom Penh, some of the suspects told Reuters they had not been given food and police were not allowing them to leave.
One of the suspects, Fang, 30, from China, said she came to Cambodia on a tourist visa. She said there were more than 200 people inside the building but declined to answer questions about what they had been doing there.
Police said they had arrested 225 Chinese nationals, 25 of them women, on suspicion of using internet voice calls for an extortion scheme. They will be sent to China to face justice, police investigators said.
Since 2011, Cambodia has deported 800 people from mainland China and Taiwan, arrested on suspicion of telecoms scams.
Neighbors in Tuol Kouk, dotted with large villas, described the occupants of the building as quiet. They said it had been rented out to tenants for $25,000 a month. The owner was not available to comment.
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