Over 1,800 arrested in Asia-wide crackdown on scam networks

More than 1,800 people have been arrested in a major anti-scam operation across seven Asian jurisdictions, including Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives, and Macao, authorities announced on Tuesday.

The coordinated crackdown, which ran through late May, targeted online shopping scams, phone fraud, fake job offers and investment schemes. Police froze nearly 33,000 bank accounts and intercepted $20 million in fraudulent funds, said Wong Chun-yue, chief superintendent of Hong Kong's Commercial Crime Bureau.

One of the more sophisticated cases involved a finance director in Singapore, who was tricked by deepfake videos posing as the CEO of a multinational company. The victim wired nearly $500,000 to Hong Kong in March. Thanks to cross-border cooperation, authorities were able to recover the funds, said Aileen Yap from Singapore’s anti-scam command.

Authorities noted that scam operations often exploit both victims and workers. Many recruits are lured under false pretenses, then forced to work under threat and poor conditions, according to a recent UN report.

The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime warned that transnational scam syndicates have been rapidly expanding across East and Southeast Asia, especially in remote or border areas of Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and the Philippines. These syndicates frequently relocate to evade police, using fake romances, investment pitches, and gambling apps to target victims worldwide.

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