“The scammer was exceptionally credible,” said Kim Sawyer, a former professor at the University of Melbourne. “He had a British accent, used all the right financial market terms and knew how to motivate us by being credible every time.”
Sawyers is no different case.
Using sophisticated cyber-tools, artificial intelligence and impersonation techniques, scammers based in hubs across Southeast Asia are bilking victims of billions of dollars of their savings. In 2024, United States A reported $10 billion loss due to scam operations based in this region alone(AP1) (LG2) .
The victims the scammers target are from around the world and, in many cases, highly educated: the Sawyers both have master’s degrees and are experienced stock market investors.
Partnership Against Organized Fraud
Although scams are becoming increasingly global, the response to these crimes is also becoming international.
Governments, law enforcement agencies, private companies and civil society brought together by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and at Interpol Global Fraud Summit Based in Vienna, Austria, with a mandate to work together, including:
- shared intelligence
- joint investigation
- Systematic prosecution across borders
Additionally, last December in Bangkok, Thailand, representatives from nearly 60 countries gathered with tech giants Meta and TikTok to launch a global partnership against online scams.
The Bangkok conference, followed by the Global Fraud Summit, organized by the Government of Thailand and UNODC, marked a diplomatic inflection point for international cooperation against scam centers.
But the criminal infrastructure that perpetuates fraud in Southeast Asia maintains a global reach.
UNODC staff raid a scam center in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh.
An entire criminal ecosystem is at work
Across the region, these operations go far beyond just fraud. These networks facilitate money laundering, develop and deploy malware, weaponize artificial intelligence (AI) for deepfakes and voice cloning, and sell cybercrime capabilities as services.
Recent raids in the Philippines and Cambodia tell the same story: a scam center is actually a small piece of a connected crime infrastructure generating billions of illicit financial flows.
This is organized crime on a large scale, where fraudulent operations are just the surface layer of a deeper ecosystem involving corruption, human trafficking and international money laundering.
“We need to prosecute high-level criminals, trace funds through financial investigations and identify the vast networks that operate behind these operations,” said Delphine Shantz, UNODC Regional Representative for South-East Asia and the Pacific.
“The complexity of these crimes requires an equally complex, whole-of-government approach and better coordination between governments, financial intelligence units and digital banks.”
A karaoke room used by managers of a scam center in the Philippines.
ground reactions
Philippines: On a recent visit to a former scam center in Manila, Philippines, UNODC officials and investigators walked through rooms where crime bosses once carried out fraud operations just hundreds of meters from government offices and foreign embassies.
In the complex, which has now been converted into the offices of the Philippines Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC), some rooms have been left in their original state: spaces where the owners would enjoy entertainment, such as a karaoke room and a gaming hall, as well as a torture chamber used to punish trafficked workers who do not meet their quota.
A logbook of the entertainment area lists politicians, municipal officials and police officers who entertained as guests, evidence of the corruption that allowed these functions to flourish.
“How can you prove cyber crime in 36 hours? It is not possible,” said PAOCC’s director of operations, recalling the melee when police first raided the site. They had just over a day to file charges before the legal deadline expired.
UNODC is helping countries in the region to address these shortcomings:
- Targeting the ability to collect, analyze and share electronic evidence
- Reducing space for organized criminal groups to move and invest resources through underground banking systems and the region’s casino industry
- Improve cooperation to stem the flow of trafficked people into scam centers in the region
In the Philippines, UNODC is assisting PAOCC and other relevant agencies involved in fighting scam operations to develop standard operating procedures for victim-centred responses:
- Identifying and repatriating victims
- gathering evidence
- Detaining alleged criminals.
UNODC is also working with the authorities in an initiative to draft a national strategy against transnational organized crime.
Scammers who do not meet their quota are often harassed
Cambodia: A delegation of prosecutors, investigators and central officials from various countries visited a scam center in Phnom Penh with UNODC officials last December.
The participants discussed mutual legal assistance, extradition, asset recovery and proper management of digital evidence across borders – important aspects in addressing the scam industry.
The timing was deliberate: Cambodia had recently established the Commission to Combat Online Scams (CCOS), a high-level coordination body chaired by the Prime Minister, with representatives from 25 ministries and the authority to work with the armed forces and law enforcement across the country.
Workers who break the rules are fined or, more often, beaten.
Towards implementing a global response to fraud
Despite increased attention and local law enforcement efforts, scam centers continue to operate, often relocating when a premises is raided. While governments continue to race to pursue the crime, victims continue to suffer billions in losses. This week’s Global Fraud Summit focused on exactly that challenge: converting political will into concrete, long-term impact.
Global leaders discussed priorities, aligned responses, and advanced solutions, but officials stressed that next steps require operational follow-up:
- joint cross border operations
- coordinated prosecution
- Real-time intelligence sharing
‘They take your money and they take your soul’
Mr Sawyer said he and his wife, along with hundreds of other victims, felt let down by the response from banks and governments.
“The scammer works twice: They take your money and they take your soul. They really do that. They take your self-esteem. And then, because of the lack of response from the authorities, you feel like you’re being scammed again,” he said.
She hopes that as countries share solutions, engage in international cooperation and draw more global attention to the issue, victims like her can benefit from responses that have already worked in other countries.
Find out what UNODC is doing to tackle these and other crimes Here.
