UN report says online scam losses in Asian regions reached up to $114.1 billion

A UN report said victims of transnational online scams in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand lost an estimated $88.3 billion to $114.1 billion last year, far above the estimated $18 billion to $37 billion lost in 2023.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said the figures show a sharp expansion of the criminal economy behind online scams. It said most losses came from investment fraud.

The report said Southeast Asia, especially Cambodia and Myanmar, has become a regional centre for crime syndicates running fake romance and cryptocurrency investment schemes. It said scammers in these operations include people who joined willingly and others who were trafficked, and that many work from fortified compounds to defraud internet users around the world.

According to the report, China, South Korea and Taiwan reported the largest scam losses in the region in the past two years, with each losing billions of dollars.

The UNODC said organised criminal groups in Southeast Asia first focused largely on Chinese-speaking victims before widening their targets globally. It said individuals from at least 80 countries and territories had been found in scam compounds across the Mekong region.

The report said AI-powered translation tools have made it easier for scam groups to reach new audiences. It also said recruiters continue to post adverts for workers who speak German, Polish, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, French, Swedish and Norwegian, as well as English.

Authorities in the region say they are cracking down on the industry under pressure from several countries, including the United States, Britain and China. AFP reported that several alleged scam network bosses were extradited from Cambodia to China in the past year, after Washington and London sanctioned firms and individuals accused of running wide-reaching cyberscams fuelled by human trafficking.

The report authors said many operations continue even after the arrest of senior figures. UNODC regional representative Delphine Schantz said there can be a narrow distinction between victims and people who use their time in the groups to gain criminal expertise. She said some return to their countries of origin and connect with existing criminal networks, including in Africa and Europe, particularly the Balkans.

The UNODC said scam centres are part of a wider criminal ecosystem in Southeast Asia that has changed over the past decade. It said that ecosystem includes the illegal drug trade, mostly methamphetamine, as well as child sexual exploitation and real estate investment, using existing trade routes and hiding behind cryptocurrencies.

The report said organised criminals are moving from locally rooted syndicates toward a more integrated, transnational and technologically sophisticated criminal economy. Schantz said the operating model resembles corporate franchising, with specialised services for money laundering, human trafficking, migrant smuggling and data harvesting connected in the same network.