UN Warns Southeast Asian Cybercriminals Are Going Global

Cybercrime syndicates based in Southeast Asia are expanding their operations on an industrial scale, according to the United Nations.

The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a Monday (April 21) report that the threat from criminal networks in countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos is outpacing government efforts to mitigate it.

“This transformation has been marked by the proliferation of industrial scale cyber-enabled fraud and scam centers, driven by sophisticated transnational syndicates and interconnected networks of money launderers, human traffickers, data brokers, and a growing number of other specialist service providers and facilitators,” the report said. “…As a result, Asian crime syndicates have emerged as definitive market leaders in cyber-enabled fraud, money laundering and underground banking globally, actively enhancing collaboration with other major criminal networks around the world.

These include the Italian mafia and the Irish mob, the report said. One example of a network with Chinese links reportedly assisted Mexican drug cartels in laundering money and reselling foreign currencies through underground banking markets.

There are now hundreds of large-scale scam operations generating tens of billions of dollars in annual profits, according to the report. In 2023 alone, countries in East and Southeast Asia collectively lost up to $37 billion to cyber-enabled fraud. In the same year in the United States, there were more than $5.6 billion in financial losses to cryptocurrency scams.

Despite reports of law enforcement crackdowns on illegal cross-border connections and raids on scammer compounds along land borders in Southeast Asia, the syndicates have been resilient, per the report. Groups respond by shifting operations to more remote locations or migrating to satellite internet services like Elon Musk’s Starlink.

This adaptability allows criminal groups to “pick, choose and move jurisdictions, operations and value as needed,” the report said.

The crisis is at a “critical inflection point,” and international cooperation is needed to disrupt the syndicates’ financing and prevent further global spillover, according to the report.

Meanwhile, credit unions are among the financial institutions being proactive against security threats, including by collaborating with partners, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Scam Surge: How Credit Unions Are Tackling Rising Security Threats.”