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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