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A billion-dollar global scam industry is growing fast, and the United Nations is warning that the problem is getting out of hand. Cybercrime gangs from Southeast Asia are now expanding their operations to other regions like Africa and South America. These groups run large scam centers where thousands of people—many of them trafficked—are forced to trick victims online.
According to a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), this underground cyber scam business is highly organized and spreading quickly. The problem began in countries like Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos, where scam centers popped up in remote areas with little government control. These centers are like modern-day sweatshops, but instead of making clothes, workers are forced to scam people all over the world—often through fake romance schemes or cryptocurrency fraud.
Despite crackdowns by countries like Thailand, China, and Myanmar, these crime syndicates keep moving to new places to avoid the law. “It spreads like cancer,” said Benedikt Hofmann, the UN’s acting regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific. “When authorities act in one area, the criminals just relocate to another.”
The UN report says there could be hundreds of scam farms globally, making tens of billions of dollars each year. In 2023 alone, the United States lost more than $5.6 billion to cryptocurrency scams—most of it through romance or “pig-butchering” scams that trick people into handing over large sums of money.
Experts say the scam industry is growing faster than other types of international crime because it's easy to scale and doesn’t require moving physical goods. Cyber scams only need internet access and fake identities, making them hard to stop.
The UN is urging governments to cooperate more closely and block the financial systems these gangs use. The situation has reached what the UNODC calls an "inflection point"—a critical moment where global action is needed before the scam networks become even harder to control. Without urgent cooperation, this digital crime wave could continue to spread unchecked across the world.
According to a report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), this underground cyber scam business is highly organized and spreading quickly. The problem began in countries like Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos, where scam centers popped up in remote areas with little government control. These centers are like modern-day sweatshops, but instead of making clothes, workers are forced to scam people all over the world—often through fake romance schemes or cryptocurrency fraud.
Despite crackdowns by countries like Thailand, China, and Myanmar, these crime syndicates keep moving to new places to avoid the law. “It spreads like cancer,” said Benedikt Hofmann, the UN’s acting regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific. “When authorities act in one area, the criminals just relocate to another.”
The UN report says there could be hundreds of scam farms globally, making tens of billions of dollars each year. In 2023 alone, the United States lost more than $5.6 billion to cryptocurrency scams—most of it through romance or “pig-butchering” scams that trick people into handing over large sums of money.
Experts say the scam industry is growing faster than other types of international crime because it's easy to scale and doesn’t require moving physical goods. Cyber scams only need internet access and fake identities, making them hard to stop.
The UN is urging governments to cooperate more closely and block the financial systems these gangs use. The situation has reached what the UNODC calls an "inflection point"—a critical moment where global action is needed before the scam networks become even harder to control. Without urgent cooperation, this digital crime wave could continue to spread unchecked across the world.
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