Southeast Asian Scam Networks Cost Victims Up to $114B in a Year: UN

Southeast Asia’s scam industry has hardened into a single, interconnected criminal economy whose losses now rival the output of entire countries, the United Nations said in a report. report published on Tuesday.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) described a “fundamental” restructuring of the region’s underworld. Locally rooted syndicates that once stuck to one territory and one specialty have merged into a transnational network in which groups sell services (money laundering, fraud, human trafficking, data collection) to each other through a shared infrastructure, the report said.

Delphine Schantz, UNODC Regional Representative for South East Asia and the Pacific, compared the model to ‘corporate franchising’. statementreferring to specialized anti-money laundering, human trafficking and data collection departments connected to the same service-based network.

Combined losses from fraud in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand alone were estimated at US$88.3 billion to US$114.1 billion in 2025 – a figure that UNODC says “exceeds the GDP of several countries in the region.” Much of that money moves through crypto: the connections run investment and romance scam operations known as “pig slaughter,” the proceeds of which are laundered on the chain. UNODC warned that police in the region still lack the training to track the money in “the new crypto context,” with Schantz adding that seizing the proceeds is now essential because “disruption alone doesn’t work.”

Instead of smuggling physical contraband, groups are increasingly selling cyber fraud, criminal infrastructure and platform-based financial schemes that leave little trace and are difficult to attribute. Feeding the machine is forced labor on a global scale, with people from at least 80 countries identified in scam complexes. Scam networks are now trying to expand their recruitment pool, the report said, with ads targeting those with European and North American language skills.

The report flags generative AI, deepfakes and near-automated fraud, in addition to ‘malvertising’ – the hijacking of legitimate ad networks to spread malware – which it says will increase 42% year-on-year by 2025. Criminal operations have been “decoupled” from local telecommunications infrastructure through satellite internet such as Elon Musk’s Starlink, the report said, allowing them to operate in remote locations.

In addition to scams, the report is also groundbreaking in other fast-growing markets. It identifies the Seas of Sulu and Celebes – the maritime triangle between Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines – as a growing smuggling corridor, and warns that criminals are gamifying online gambling to attract younger users.

UNODC Executive Director Monica Juma said the networks are “flexible, persistent and adaptable,” able to move across borders and resume operations after law enforcement crackdowns, making international cooperation essential for their dismantling.

Law enforcement agencies around the world are escalating their response to the threat. US prosecutors last week seized more than $25 million in crypto linked to investment and romance fraud spreading across the region, and Interpol has labeled the assembled networks a global threat. The human toll is also coming into focus, as Amnesty International documents a humanitarian crisis as workers flee the camps of Cambodia – the same country where alleged Prince Group boss Chen Zhi was arrested pending extradition to China, in a case that included one of the largest Bitcoin seizures ever.