Thị Trường Crypto Đen toàn cầu – Global Crypto Black Market – National Geographic
Đế chế tội phạm mạng tỉ đô được xây ở Cambodia như thế nào?- How a Billion Dollar Cambodian Cybercrime Empire Was Built – Bloomberg
Vì sao băng nhóm tội phạm Crypto ở Đông Nam Á nở rộ – Why scam gangs in Southeast Asia are a growing global threat
Griffith.edu.au May 19, 2025 By Dr Hai Thanh Luong
From fake job offers to cryptocurrency fraud and online romance scams, Southeast Asia has become a global hub for transnational scam operations.
These aren’t isolated crimes, they are organised, cross-border and industrial-scale criminal enterprises that exploit vulnerable people and expose the limits of international law enforcement.
New research shows this surge in scams represents more than just a regional issue. It’s a transnational emergency, and it demands an urgent, coordinated response.
Why Southeast Asia?
Several factors have turned Southeast Asia into a hotbed for scam syndicates.
The collapse of rule of law in parts of Myanmar has created ungoverned spaces where criminal operations flourish.
Meanwhile, countries like Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines offer a fertile environment for transnational crime due to weak governance, corruption, and limited oversight.
These scam centres don’t just target foreign victims. They also lure and trap workers—many of them young people from poorer nations—under the false promise of legitimate employment. Once inside, many are subjected to forced labour, abuse and trafficking.
This has become a humanitarian crisis as scam compounds across Southeast Asia have held thousands of people against their will, forcing them to commit fraud under threat of violence.
The rise of digital technologies has only made these operations harder to trace and easier to scale. From encrypted messaging to unregulated cryptocurrency, scam networks have globalised rapidly, while enforcement efforts remain stuck behind borders.
Why national responses aren’t working
One of the key challenges in confronting this crisis is the fragmented nature of law enforcement.
Scams that begin in one country can target victims in another, while using platforms, payment systems, and communication tools hosted across multiple jurisdictions.
But many national police forces are not equipped to act beyond their borders. And transnational criminal syndicates have exploited the lack of international coordination to operate with relative impunity.
Even where political will exists, legal mismatches and diplomatic bottlenecks prevent timely investigations, arrests or prosecutions.
Countries tend to focus inward, launching isolated crackdowns that fail to dismantle the broader networks.
This mismatch between the global nature of the threat and the localised nature of responses is precisely what allows these scams to thrive.
What needs to happen
To seriously confront this growing criminal economy, regional governments must prioritise coordinated responses, cross-border investigations, and robust intelligence sharing.
This includes:
- Building shared databases and real-time intelligence channels to track trends, suspects and operations;
- Developing harmonised legal tools to enable prosecutions and asset recovery across jurisdictions;
- Working with tech and financial platforms to shut down scam infrastructure;
- Protecting and rehabilitating victims, particularly those trafficked into scam compounds.
ASEAN, Interpol, and UNODC all have a role to play. But meaningful cooperation remains patchy, slow and overly politicised. Tackling scams as a global crisis, not just a regional one, will require serious investment and political leadership.
A crisis we can’t ignore
Scams are often dismissed as digital annoyances or consumer issues.
The response to this crisis cannot be local, slow or siloed. The fight against transnational scams cannot be won in isolation.
Only by working together can states dismantle the criminal networks exploiting the region’s vulnerabilities.
But what we are seeing in Southeast Asia is a complex ecosystem of transnational organised crime, often underpinned by exploitation and violence.
Billions of dollars are being stolen. Thousands of people are being trafficked and abused. And public trust in digital systems is eroding as scams become more sophisticated.
“Một loại ung thư” – UN cảnh báo tập đoàn tội phạm mạng Châu Á mở rộng khắp thế giới – ‘A cancer’: UN warns Asia-based cybercrime syndicates expanding worldwide
Agency says gangs caused $37bn in losses in Asia as they gain new footholds in Africa, South America, and Middle East.
Published On 21 Apr 202521 Apr 2025
Asian cybercrime syndicates have caused an estimated $37bn in losses in the East and Southeast Asian regions, with the United Nations warning that the reach of the criminal networks is expanding globally.
In a report released on Monday, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) detailed how Chinese and Southeast Asian gangs have been raking in tens of billions of dollars annually targeting victims in an array of cybercrimes, including fake investments, cryptocurrency, romance and other scams.
The criminal organisation have largely operated out of squalid compounds in the border areas of Myanmar, as well as in so-called “special economic zones” designed to attract foreign investment in Cambodia and Laos. They have relied on often trafficked workers forced to work in squalid compounds.
While the report said countries in East and Southeast Asia lost an estimated $37bn to cyber-fraud in 2023, there were “much larger estimated losses” worldwide.
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The report warned that the networks have been spreading to South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the Pacific Islands.
“We are seeing a global expansion of East and Southeast Asian organized crime groups,” said Benedikt Hofmann, UNODC acting regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
“This reflects both industry growth and a strategy to evade crackdowns in Southeast Asia,” Hofmann said.
‘Spreads like a cancer’
The report said the syndicates have established footholds in African nations, including Zambia, Angola, and Namibia, as well as Pacific island nations, including Fiji and Vanuatu.
They have also expanded their money laundering strategies, forging alliances with South American drug cartels, the Italian mafia, and Irish mobsters, according to the report.
Cryptocurrency mining – typically referring to the creation of new cryptocurrencies and the validation of transactions – has become a key tool for obscuring illicit funds, according to the report.
In one instance, in June 2023, Libyan authorities raided an illegal crypto mining operation in a militia-controlled area, arresting 50 Chinese nationals.
Recent crackdowns in Myanmar, backed by China, also freed about 7,000 trafficked workers.
However, the UN warned that while enforcement disrupts operations temporarily, the syndicates have proven adept at adapting.
“It spreads like a cancer,” said Hofmann. “Authorities treat it in one area, but the roots never disappear, they simply migrate.”
New technologies have further complicated the situation, with criminal networks operating self-contained digital ecosystems, using encrypted messaging, payment apps, and cryptocurrencies to evade law enforcement, the report said.
The UN agency further warned of “potentially irreversible spillover has taken place…leaving criminal groups free to pick, choose, and move … as needed”.
It urged countries to collaborate and intensify efforts to disrupt criminal networks’ financing.
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies
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