The globalisation of the war on Asian scam networks

A trial got underway in Seoul last week for 46 South Koreans, mostly men in their 20s, accused of participating in online scam operations in Cambodia.

Since mid-October, South Korea has repatriated 107 nationals from Cambodia, where officials estimate upwards of 1,000 of its citizens are working either "voluntarily or involuntarily" in scam compounds.

The repatriation effort follows public outrage over the death of a South Korean college student who was reportedly lured to Cambodia and forced to work in a scam centre. 

The 22-year-old man's body was discovered with injuries consistent with torture, suggesting that he may have been beaten to death.

An autopsy revealed he "died as a result of severe torture, with multiple bruises and injuries across his body," according to a Cambodian court statement.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said, "The government's greatest responsibility is to safeguard the lives and safety of our people.

"We must protect the victims and swiftly repatriate those involved in these incidents back to Korea." 

South Korea recently joined the US, UK and Singapore in imposing sanctions on Cambodia's 

Prince Holding Group, a multinational network whose founder is accused of running large-scale fraud operations across Southeast Asia — charges the company has rejected. 

"What we have seen recently is that, like South Korea, there has been a push towards following the money and putting sanctions and freezing people's money," said Brian Hanley, Asia-Pacific director for the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA), a global non-profit fighting online fraud. 

"And we think this has started to make a dent."

Billions lost to Southeast Asia scam networks

Southeast Asia has become a major hub for digital scam operations. The United Nations estimated in 2023 that over 200,000 people have been trafficked into countries like Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia under the guise of lucrative job offers. 

There, they work in massive scam centres that are part of a multibillion-dollar cyber fraud industry that runs online scamming schemes.

These large scam operations are concentrated in remote conflict zones of Southeast Asia, particularly along Thailand's borders with Cambodia and Myanmar.

Recent clashes between Thai and Cambodian forces have included strikes on suspected scam compounds in Cambodia. In Myanmar, such centres have proliferated and are reportedly financing both sides of the country's ongoing civil war.

Scam centre workers are typically citizens of Asian countries who are often victims of human trafficking. The scams primarily target people in Western, English-speaking nations.

"We're talking about human trafficking and slavery, so obviously this is a major human rights issue," said Hanley. "But it is also a national security issue, not just for the region but for the whole world."

In its State of the Scams 2025 report, GASA estimates that $442 billion (€375.4 billion) has been lost to scams worldwide in the 12 months ending October 2025. That figure could be higher, as many people do not report their losses to online scams.

GASA also found that 57% of adults worldwide have had a scam experience in the last 12 months.

Examples of scams include online shopping, investment and romance scams, which fraudsters refer to as "pig butchering," a term referring to "fattening" victims by gaining their trust, often through fictitious romantic relationships.

Once trust is established, scammers convince victims to transfer funds into fake cryptocurrency investment platforms, which are then laundered through accounts across Asia, making recovery extremely difficult.

Why the US is a top target for scammer networks

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) estimates that the scam industry in Southeast Asia defrauds Americans of $9 billion to $10 billion (€7.7 billion to €8.5 billion) per year.

The GASA report says that $64.8 billion was stolen from Americans in the year ending in October 2025, with each victim losing an average of $1,087. It added that the average American now encounters a scam attempt every single day. 

In response to rising instances of cyber fraud, US authorities established the Scam Center Strike Force in November. It is an interagency task force focused on investigating, dismantling, and prosecuting scam centres and those who finance them.

"My office will not stand by as these Chinese organised crime enterprises empty out the bank accounts of hardworking Americans," said US Attorney Jeanine Pirro when launching the task force.

The US partnered with the UK in 2025 to sanction individuals and entities that operate illegal scam centres across Southeast Asia.

Australia and Singapore also made strides in enacting legislation to protect their citizens from scams and also cooperate with the US on law enforcement operations and sanctions. 

For Jacob Sims, a visiting fellow at the Asia Center at Harvard University who has been tracking transnational crime in Cambodia and greater Southeast Asia, the issue of scams has gained significant political traction in the US over the past year.

"A year ago today in [Washington, DC], there was one sanction," said Sims. "And today, a large number of the prominent names and entities have been sanctioned, and there are a dozen bills in Congress."

However, these actions have also been hampered by cuts to USAID programs in Southeast Asia that monitored human trafficking along the Thai-Myanmar border and in Cambodia, which were eradicated under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

"The response thus far, as much momentum as there clearly is, does not yet constitute a truly strategic response and is not yet commensurate to the threat or sufficient to meaningfully disrupt it," said Sims.

The role of China in scam centres

Many of the massive scam centres across Southeast Asia are said to be run by Chinese criminal networks.

China has taken steps to shut down scam centres in Cambodia and Myanmar — but only those targeting Chinese people.

A report submitted to the US Congress in July found few links between these criminal networks and the Chinese government or members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but stated that the actions of these organisations often further fuel these regional conflicts through corruption and crime.

Even with the recent announcements of sanctions and criminal investigations, countries like South Korea and even the US appear reluctant to criticise the governments of China or Cambodia and instead target the criminals and their networks directly.

According to Sims, as long as Phnom Penh performs just enough cooperation to preserve the illusion that it remains strategically "in play," Western capitals have proven reliably willing to tolerate industrial-scale scams targeting their own citizens.

"Many governments hesitate to confront Cambodia directly because they still view it as a pivotal chess piece in a China-versus-the-West geopolitical game," he said.

Ole Tangen Jr is a DW reporter and editor based in Bonn.

Disclaimer: This article first appeared on DW, and has been published under special syndication arrangement.