A new UN report has warned that criminal syndicates behind Asia’s billion-dollar cyber scam industry are spreading operations across the globe, reaching as far as South America, Eastern Europe and Africa, as enforcement in Southeast Asia falls short of containing them.
Once concentrated in lawless compounds in Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, these organised networks now pose a transnational threat, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Authorities are struggling to keep pace as the syndicates adapt, migrate and diversify.
“It spreads like a cancer,” said Benedikt Hofmann, UNODC’s acting regional representative. “Authorities treat it in one area, but the roots never disappear; they simply migrate.”
The cyber fraud industry has rapidly outgrown other types of transnational crime. It doesn’t rely on moving illicit goods — only on an internet connection and access to vulnerable victims. Recent years have seen a surge in ‘pig-butchering’ scams, targeting victims through fake online relationships and crypto fraud. In the U.S. alone, such scams caused losses of over $5.6 billion in 2023.
Despite crackdowns on border zones between Thailand and Myanmar — including cutting off electricity and internet — operations have shifted to less monitored regions, including Cambodia’s Koh Kong and parts of Laos and Vietnam. The UN says hundreds of scam “farms” now operate worldwide, generating tens of billions in annual profit.
Governments across Southeast Asia are under pressure. Cambodia’s government has pledged action, forming a commission led by Prime Minister Hun Manet. “To overcome this complex problem, we need collaboration, not blame,” said spokesman Pen Bona.
But while regional efforts grow, so does the industry. Gangs have established footholds in Zambia, Angola, and Georgia, while building money laundering links with South American cartels. Victims and trafficked workers from over 50 countries have been rescued this year alone.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed holding direct talks with Ukraine for the first time in years, a move that follows mounting pressure from the United States to show a real interest in peace. The statement comes days after Moscow’s one-day Easter truce failed to hold.
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What began as a viral TikTok video has now left shelves bare and pistachio prices surging. Dubai chocolate, a luxury milk chocolate bar filled with pistachio cream and delicate kataifi pastry, has taken the world by storm. And the nut that gives it its green glow? In dangerously short supply.
Pope Francis, the first pontiff from Latin America and one of the most reform-minded leaders in modern Church history, has died at the age of 88 following a cerebral stroke, the Vatican announced on Monday.
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President Donald Trump is standing by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after new revelations that he shared sensitive military information via a private messaging app — not once, but twice.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed holding direct talks with Ukraine for the first time in years, a move that follows mounting pressure from the United States to show a real interest in peace. The statement comes days after Moscow’s one-day Easter truce failed to hold.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov has praised France’s rejection of a controversial encryption bill, warning that weakening privacy protections would do little to stop crime but could endanger millions of law-abiding users.
What began as a viral TikTok video has now left shelves bare and pistachio prices surging. Dubai chocolate, a luxury milk chocolate bar filled with pistachio cream and delicate kataifi pastry, has taken the world by storm. And the nut that gives it its green glow? In dangerously short supply.
President Donald Trump is standing by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after new revelations that he shared sensitive military information via a private messaging app — not once, but twice.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed holding direct talks with Ukraine for the first time in years, a move that follows mounting pressure from the United States to show a real interest in peace. The statement comes days after Moscow’s one-day Easter truce failed to hold.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov has praised France’s rejection of a controversial encryption bill, warning that weakening privacy protections would do little to stop crime but could endanger millions of law-abiding users.
What began as a viral TikTok video has now left shelves bare and pistachio prices surging. Dubai chocolate, a luxury milk chocolate bar filled with pistachio cream and delicate kataifi pastry, has taken the world by storm. And the nut that gives it its green glow? In dangerously short supply.
Pope Francis, the first pontiff from Latin America and one of the most reform-minded leaders in modern Church history, has died at the age of 88 following a cerebral stroke, the Vatican announced on Monday.
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