BANGKOK: Asian crime networks running multi-billion-dollar cyber scam centers are expanding their operations across the world as they seek new victims and new ways to launder money, the UN said on Monday.
\nChinese and Southeast Asian gangs are raking in tens of billions of dollars a year targeting victims through investment, cryptocurrency, romance and other scams \u2014 using an army of workers often trafficked and forced to toil in squalid compounds.
\nThe activity has largely been focused in Myanmar\u2019s lawless border areas and dubious \u201cspecial economic zones\u201d set up in Cambodia and Laos.
\nBut a new report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warned the networks are building up operations in South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and some Pacific islands.
\n\u201cWe are seeing a global expansion of East and Southeast Asian organized crime groups,\u201d said Benedikt Hofmann, UNODC Acting Regional Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
\n\u201cThis reflects both a natural expansion as the industry grows and seeks new ways and places to do business, but also a hedging against future risks should disruption continue and intensify in Southeast Asia.\u201d
\nCountries in east and southeast Asia lost an estimated $37 billion to cyber fraud in 2023, the UNODC report said, adding that \u201cmuch larger estimated losses\u201d were reported around the world.
\nThe syndicates have expanded in Africa \u2014 notably in Zambia, Angola and Namibia \u2014 as well as Pacific islands such as Fiji, Palau, Tonga and Vanuatu.<\/p>\n
Besides seeking new bases and new victims, the criminal gangs are broadening their horizons to help launder their illicit income, the report said, pointing to team-ups with \u201cSouth American drug cartels, the Italian mafia, and Irish mob, among many others.\u201d
\nIllicit cryptocurrency mining \u2014 unregulated and anonymous \u2014 has become a \u201cpowerful tool\u201d for the networks to launder money, the report said.
\nIn June 2023 a sophisticated crypto mining operation in a militia-controlled territory in Libya, equipped with high-powered computers and high-voltage cooling units, was raided and 50 Chinese nationals arrested.
\nThe global spread of the syndicates\u2019 operations has been driven in part by pressure from authorities in Southeast Asia.
\nA major crackdown on scam centers in Myanmar this year, pushed by Beijing, led to around 7,000 workers from at least two dozen counrties being freed.
\nBut the UN report warns that while such efforts disrupt the scam gangs\u2019 immediate activities, they have shown themselves able to adapt and relocate swiftly.
\n\u201cIt spreads like a cancer,\u201d UNODC\u2019s Hoffman said.
\n\u201cAuthorities treat it in one area, but the roots never disappear, they simply migrate.\u201d
\nAlongside the scam centers, staffed by a workforce estimated by the UN to be in the hundreds of thousands, the industry is further enabled by new technological developments.
\nOperators have developed their own online ecosystems with payment applications, encrypted messaging platforms and cryptocurrencies, to get round mainstream platforms that might be targeted by law enforcement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BANGKOK: Asian crime networks running multi-billion-dollar cyber scam centers are expanding their operations across the world as they seek new victims and new ways to launder money, the UN said on Monday. Chinese and Southeast Asian gangs are raking in tens of billions of dollars a year targeting victims through investment, cryptocurrency, romance and other …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":79973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79963"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79974,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79963\/revisions\/79974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}