Bangkok – The transnational organized crimes groups in the East and Southeast Asia are disseminating their lucrative scam operations worldwide in response to the increase in repressions by the authorities, according to an UN report issued on Monday.
For several years, scam compounds have proliferated in Southeast Asia, especially in the border areas of CambodiaLaos and Myanmaras well as in the PhilippinesChanging operations from one place to another to keep one step ahead of the police.
More recently, the scam centers that have shaken the victims of billions of dollars through false romantic tactics, false investment releases and illegal play schemes are now reported that they operate as far as Africa and Latin America.
Asian crime unions have expanded the deepest operations in remote areas with the application of the Laxa Law that are vulnerable to the influx, according to the report issued by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime or UNODC. The report is entitled “turning point: global implications of fraud centers, underground banking and online illicit markets in Southeast Asia”.
“This reflects both a natural expansion as the industry grows and seeks new forms and places to do business, but also coverage against future risks in case the interruption continues and intensifies in Southeast Asia,” he said in a statement by the Regional Representative of ADC action for Southeast Asia and Pacific.
UNODC estimates that hundreds of industrial scam centers generate just under $ 40 billion in annual profits.
The tendency to protect beyond the region has been consistent with the continuous reports of repressions that are directed to centers of scams led by Asian that have been found in Africa, Asia del Sur, Middle East and select Pacific Islands, as well as the laundering of related money, the trafficking services of people and recruitment recruitment discovered in Europe, North America and South America.
In Africa, Nigeria It has become a hot point, with police raids at the end of 2024 and early 2025, which leads to many arrests, including people from the East and Southeast Asia suspected of cryptocurrency and romance scams. Zambia and Angola have also burst the operations of Cyberfraud united to Asian.
In Latin America, the report says that it is “remarkable that Brazil has become a country that has faced a growing set of challenges related to cyber fraud, online game and related money laundering, with some links with criminal groups that operate in Southeast Asia.”
He also points out that at the end of 2023 in PeruMore than 40 Malays were rescued after being trafficked by a Taiwan -based gang known as the red dragon union that forced them to commit cyber fraud.
The report also points to repressions in the scam centers led by Asian in the Middle East and some Pacific islands.
To the alarming, despite the fact that the groups led by Asian have been expanding the geographical scope of their operations, the participation of criminal groups from other parts of the world is also growing, according to the report.
The new online markets, money laundering networks, stolen data products, malware, artificial intelligence and defack technologies are sitting the land for the emergence of crime as a service, according to the report. These technological innovations facilitate their online businesses and adapt to repressions.
“The convergence between the acceleration and professionalization of these operations, on the one hand, and their geographical expansion in new parts of the region and beyond the other translates into a new intensity in the industry, one to which governments must be prepared to respond,” says Hofmann.
