- The UN Office on Drugs and Crime reports Southeast Asia’s fragmented crime syndicates have fused into a single, tech-driven criminal economy built on shared fraud and laundering infrastructure.
- Scam operations across the wider region drove an estimated $88.3 billion to $114.1 billion in losses in 2025, much of it crypto investment fraud run from industrial-scale compounds.
- UNODC urges regional police to obtain specialized crypto training to trace and seize proceeds, warning that disruption-focused strategies are not working.
- Generative AI, deepfakes, and satellite internet from providers like Starlink are enabling criminal networks to operate in remote locations with growing sophistication.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime warned Tuesday that Southeast Asia’s scam industry has hardened into a single, interconnected criminal economy whose losses now rival the GDP of entire countries, according to a new report. Locally rooted syndicates that once stuck to one territory have fused into a transnational network where groups sell money laundering, fraud, and human trafficking services to one another over shared infrastructure.
UNODC Regional Representative Delphine Schantz likened the model to “corporate franchising,” pointing to specialized departments for laundering and data harvesting that plug into a service-based network. Combined losses from scam offences across East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand reached an estimated $88.3 billion to $114.1 billion in 2025 alone.
Much of that money moves through crypto: compounds run investment- and romance-scam operations—often called “pig butchering”—whose proceeds are laundered on-chain. UNODC warned that police in the region still lack the training to follow the money in “the new crypto context,” with Schantz adding that seizing proceeds is now essential because “disruption alone does not work.”
The report flags generative AI, deepfakes, and “malvertising”—the hijacking of legitimate ad networks—which rose 42% year-on-year in 2025. Criminal operations have been “decoupled” from local telecom infrastructure by satellite internet such as Starlink, enabling them to operate in remote locations.
UNODC Executive Director Monica Juma said the networks are “flexible, persistent and adaptable,” able to shift across borders and resume operations after crackdowns. U.S. prosecutors last week seized more than $25 million in crypto tied to investment and romance scams routed through the region, while Interpol has labeled the compound networks a global threat.
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