Southeast Asia's Fraud Factories Have Gone Global
A UN report puts the cost of the region's industrialised cyber-fraud industry at up to $114 billion in 2025. Corruption, cryptocurrency, and AI have made it almost impossible to shut down.
Key points
- The UN Office on Drugs and Crime estimates Southeast Asian cyber-fraud networks cost the region between $88 billion and $114 billion in 2025.
- Telegram-based criminal marketplaces processed more than $53 billion in transaction flows in 2025, up from $6 billion in 2022.
- Cryptocurrency inflows to scam-related entities more than doubled in one year, rising from $9.8 billion to $22 billion.
- Criminal networks have forced people from more than 80 countries to work in fraud operations against their will.
- Corruption inside local governments is described by the UNODC as a structural feature of the criminal economy, not an occasional problem.
The fraud compounds that first grabbed global headlines in Myanmar a few years ago were never really dismantled. They moved. When authorities shut down operations at KK Park and Shwe Kokko in Myanmar, the criminal organisations behind them simply reopened in Cambodia, Laos, and elsewhere, rebuilding almost instantly.
That pattern sits at the heart of a new report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), first covered by Dark Reading, which describes a criminal industry so well-organised it now functions more like a service economy than a network of gangs.
How big has this actually got?
Very big. The UNODC's Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessment for Southeast Asia 2026 puts the regional economic damage at $88 billion to $114 billion for 2025 alone. That figure covers fraud losses, money laundered through parallel financial systems, and the wider damage to governance.
The organisations behind this are not loosely connected hackers. Patrick Dannacher, chief executive of Indonesian information-security firm ITSEC Asia, describes it plainly: "Different groups specialise in different pieces, stolen data, malware, hosting infrastructure, recruitment and laundering, and monetise each piece independently. That's closer to a service industry than a single criminal operation."
Workers are trafficked from more than 80 countries, many forced at gunpoint to run scam call centres.
What technology made this possible?
Four tools, used together, turned a regional problem into a global one.
First, cryptocurrency, and specifically the TRON blockchain (a fast, cheap network for moving digital money) combined with Tether (a digital coin pegged to the US dollar), gave criminals a parallel banking system that is hard for regulators to trace. Criminal marketplaces on the Telegram messaging app, including platforms called Huione Guarantee and Xinbi Guarantee, let criminal vendors openly advertise services such as money laundering and stolen personal data. Those platforms processed over $53 billion in flows last year.
Second, Telegram's encrypted messaging, where messages are scrambled so only sender and receiver can read them, gave criminal organisations secure internal communications.
Third, generative AI tools, meaning software that can write text, clone voices, or swap faces in video, lowered the skill required to run convincing fraud. Xue Yin Peh, a senior intelligence analyst at blockchain-analysis firm Chainalysis, notes these marketplaces now openly advertise AI-powered deepfake tools for impersonating real people in video calls.
Fourth, satellite internet services such as Starlink cut the criminals' dependence on local phone and broadband networks, making it harder for local officials to monitor or cut their connections.
| Technology | Criminal use | Scale in 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| TRON / Tether cryptocurrency | Money laundering, cross-border payments | $22 billion in scam-related inflows |
| Telegram marketplaces | Selling fraud tools, stolen data, laundering | $53 billion in transaction flows |
| Generative AI | Deepfakes, voice cloning, social-engineering scripts | Widely advertised on criminal platforms |
| Satellite internet (e.g. Starlink) | Bypassing local telecoms monitoring | Used across border compound networks |
Why can't law enforcement stop it?
Corruption is the short answer. The UNODC is direct on this point: "Corruption is a structural variable, one that determines where criminal networks locate, how they scale, and how long they survive enforcement pressure."
When police move, the networks relocate. Profits in some countries represent a meaningful share of national economic output, giving criminal operators enormous leverage over local officials.
Peh of Chainalysis frames the wider damage well: "A single scam operation can simultaneously destroy individual victims' savings, exploit trafficked workers through forced labour, launder proceeds through global financial infrastructure, and in certain instances, undermine governance and the rule of law."
What should ordinary people watch for?
These operations reach every continent. If you receive an unsolicited message on any platform offering investment returns, a romantic relationship that quickly turns to financial requests, or a job offer that seems unusually well-paid for remote work, treat it with serious suspicion. Verify any financial platform independently before sending money. If you are contacted about a job abroad and asked to surrender your passport, contact your national police immediately.
