Bangkok Post – Southeast Asia scammers will steal up to $37 billion by 2023, UN says

PUBLISHED: October 7, 2024 at 5:29 PM

Two Thai cell towers will be built in 2022 across the Moei River in Myanmar, south of Myawaddy and Mae Sot. It is believed that the complex consists mainly of dormitories whose residents are suspected scammers. (Photo provided)

Cybercrime syndicates raked in as much as $37 billion last year and are stepping up their activities across Southeast Asia despite increasing law enforcement efforts, the United Nations said.

“The transnational organized crime threat landscape in Southeast Asia is evolving faster than ever before in history,” said a report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Illegal cyber activity has surged since the pandemic, with countries in the Mekong region – Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos – becoming a hotbed for crime syndicates to set up operations that carry out investment schemes for romance, crypto fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling .

With the sector proving to be highly lucrative, these groups are now integrating new service-based business models and technologies, the UN report said. They include the use of malware, generative AI and deepfakes in their operations, while opening new underground markets and cryptocurrency solutions for their money laundering needs.

“The sheer volume of proceeds generated within the region’s thriving illicit economy has necessitated the professionalization and innovation of money laundering activities, and transnational criminal groups in Southeast Asia have emerged as global market leaders,” the report said.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked into those countries by criminal enterprises and forced to work in so-called racket centers with casinos, hotels and special economic zones among the real estate developments that have become “centers for the booming illegal economy, adding to existing governance problems in many of the border areas of the region.”

As a result, cyber fraud has intensified, resulting in estimated financial losses of between $18 billion and $37 billion by 2023 due to scams targeting victims in East and Southeast Asia.

The report also cited the S$3 billion ($2.3 billion) money laundering case in Singapore, which marked the city-state’s first criminal actions against financial professionals. “While the case represents one of the largest money laundering investigations in Singapore’s history, it could be the tip of the iceberg,” the report said.