A US-led crackdown on online scams may hand Southeast Asia an opportunity to combat the scourge, analysts say, as Washington and Beijing find common purpose in dismantling criminal networks that exploit lax governance and human trafficking.
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The United States launched its “Scam Centre Strike Force” last week to counter cryptocurrency fraud linked to Southeast Asia, estimating that such crimes defraud Americans of nearly US$10 billion a year.
Many of these schemes, dubbed “pig butchering” scams, are run from compounds in the region where “victims of human trafficking, held against their will, [are] abused, and guarded by armed groups as they are instructed to target Americans”, according to a US Justice Department statement.
The proceeds were typically laundered through US-based platforms and moved to accounts overseas, it added.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), transnational organised crime groups based in Southeast Asia have evolved into “criminal service providers” offering a wide spectrum of illicit activities
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