Victims of transnational online scams in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand lost up to $114.1 billion last year, a UN report said Tuesday, with estimated losses at least tripling from 2023.Southeast Asia, especially Cambodia and Myanmar, has emerged as a regional hub for crime syndicates running fake romance and cryptocurrency investment schemes in which scammers -- some willing, others trafficked -- defraud internet users around the world, often from fortified compounds.But under pressure from several countries including the United States, Britain and China, authorities in the region say they are cracking down on the illicit industry.
In this handout photo taken and released by Agence Kampuchea Press (AKP) on April 30, 2026, a Thai official ,left, looks on as Thai citizens, suspected of being involved in online scams, sit at the Poipet international border checkpoint between Cambodia and Thailand, at Poipet town in Banteay Meanchey province on April 30, 2026.
Several alleged scam network bosses were extradited from Cambodia to China in the last year, after Washington and London sanctioned firms and individuals accused of operating far-reaching cyberscams fuelled by human trafficking.Online scams, mostly from investment fraud, across the specified regions cost victims an estimated $88.3 billion to $114.1 billion last year, according to the new report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
