Asian crime syndicates behind the multibillion-dollar cyberscam industry are expanding globally, including to South America and Africa, as raids in Southeast Asia fail to contain their activities, the UN said in a report yesterday.
Criminal networks that emerged in Southeast Asia in the past few years, opening sprawling compounds housing tens of thousands of workers, many trafficked and forced to scam victims around the world, have evolved into a sophisticated global industry, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.
Even as Southeast Asian governments have intensified a crackdown, syndicates have moved within and beyond the region, the agency said, adding that a “potentially irreversible spillover has taken place ... leaving criminal groups free to pick, choose, and move ... as needed.”
Photo: Reuters
“It spreads like a cancer,” said John Wojcik, a regional analyst for UNODC. “Authorities treat it in one area, but the roots never disappear; they simply migrate.”
Conservative estimates indicate there are hundreds of large-scale scam farms around the world generating tens of billions of dollars in annual profits, the UNODC said, calling on countries to work together and intensify efforts to disrupt the gangs’ financing.
“The regional cyberfraud industry ... has outpaced other transnational crimes, given that it is easily scalable and able to reach millions of potential victims online, with no need to move or traffic illicit goods across borders,” Wojcik said.
The US alone reported more than US$5.6 billion in losses to cryptocurrency scams in 2023 — including more than US$4 million in so-called pig-butchering scams or romance scams designed to extort money from often elderly and vulnerable people.
In recent months, authorities from China, where many of the gangs originate, Thailand and Myanmar have led a crackdown on scam operations in lawless areas of the Thai-Myanmar border, with Thailand cutting power, fuel and Internet supply to areas housing scam compounds.
However, syndicates have adapted, shifting operations between “the most remote, vulnerable and underprepared parts of Southeast Asia,” especially in Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia, and beyond, exploiting jurisdictions with weak governance and high rates of corruption, the agency said.
Raids in parts of Cambodia where the industry is most visible “led to significant expansion in more remote locations,” including the country’s western Koh Kong Province, as well as areas bordering Thailand and Vietnam, the agency said.
New sites also continue to be developed in Myanmar, it added, a country in the throes of an expanding conflict since the military seized power four years ago.
Spokespeople for the Cambodian government and Myanmar junta did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Syndicates have expanded into South America, the agency said, seeking to enhance money laundering and underground banking partnerships with South American drug cartels.
They are increasingly establishing operations in Africa, including in Zambia, Angola and Namibia, and in eastern Europe, including Georgia, the agency said.
Gangs have also rapidly diversified their workforce, recruiting people from dozens of nationalities, it said, reflecting how the industry scams targets across the globe and has sought to evade anti-trafficking efforts.
Citizens of more than 50 countries — from Brazil to Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan — were rescued during recent crackdowns on the Thai-Myanmar border.
The international community is at a “critical inflection point,” the UNODC said, adding that failure to address the problem would have “unprecedented consequences for Southeast Asia that reverberate globally.”
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
APPORTIONING BLAME: The US president said that there were ‘millions of people dead because of three people’ — Vladimir Putin, Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy US President Donald Trump on Monday resumed his attempts to blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for Russia’s invasion, falsely accusing him of responsibility for “millions” of deaths. Trump — who had a blazing public row in the Oval Office with Zelenskiy six weeks ago — said the Ukranian shared the blame with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the February 2022 invasion, and then-US president Joe Biden. Trump told reporters that there were “millions of people dead because of three people.” “Let’s say Putin No. 1, but let’s say Biden, who had no idea what the hell he was doing, No. 2, and
DEMONSTRATIONS: A protester said although she would normally sit back and wait for the next election, she cannot do it this time, adding that ‘we’ve lost too much already’ Thousands of protesters rallied on Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the US for a second major round of demonstrations against US President Donald Trump and his hard-line policies. In New York, people gathered outside the city’s main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans such as: “No Kings in America” and “Resist Tyranny.” Many took aim at Trump’s deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting: “No ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], no fear, immigrants are welcome here.” In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process. The
RSS