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Global wake-up call on organized fraud
Criminal networks originating in South-East Asia are targeting victims worldwide, triggering an unprecedented global response. In this photo, I raided a scam farm in the Philippines.
Criminal networks originating in South-East Asia are targeting victims worldwide, triggering an unprecedented global response.
Bangkok, Thailand, March 17, 2026-The Sawyers have never really been interested in volatile investing. As retirement age approaches, the idea of a low-risk investment pension becomes attractive. But one day, after clicking on a seemingly legitimate online ad that offered a reasonable risk-avoidance scheme, they unlocked a process that cost them more than $2.5 million.
"The scammers are very credible," said Kim Sawyer, a former University of Melbourne professor. "He has a British accent, uses all the right financial market terminology and knows how to get us [to earn trust] by appearing credible every time."
The Sawyer family is not an isolated case. Using advanced cyber tools, artificial intelligence and impersonation technology, the scammers plaguing centres across Southeast Asia have swindled their victims into saving billions of dollars. In 2024 alone,United StatesIt reported a loss of $10 billion due to fraudulent activities in the region. The victims of the scammers are all over the world, and many are highly educated: the Sawyers have both master's degrees and are experienced stock market investors.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres speaks at the Global Partnership Against Cyber Fraud conference. Bangkok, Thailand. December 17, 2025.
Partnerships to combat organized fraud
While fraud is increasingly global, the response to these crimes is also becoming transnational. This week, UNODC and Interpol met in Vienna, Austria.Global Anti-Fraud SummitIt brings together government, law enforcement, the private sector and civil society on a mission to turn promises into results: shared intelligence, joint investigations and streamlined cross-border trials.
In addition, in Bangkok, Thailand in December last year, representatives of nearly 60 countries gathered with technology giants Meta and TikTok to jointly launch a global anti-online fraud cooperation plan.
The Bangkok meeting, hosted by the Government of Thailand and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), followed this week's Global Anti-Fraud Summit, marked a diplomatic turning point for the Center for International Cooperation to Combat Fraud.
But the driving force behind fraud-the criminal infrastructure-remains entrenched in Southeast Asia and retains global influence.
Not just cyber fraud, but the operation of the entire criminal ecosystem
These cross-regional actions are not just frauds. These networks facilitate money laundering, develop and deploy malware, leverage AI for deep forgery and voice cloning, and sell cybercrime capabilities as a service.
Recent raids in the Philippines and Cambodia tell the same story: one of the scam centers was actually a small part of a connected criminal infrastructure that generated billions of dollars in illicit financial flows.
This is large-scale organized crime, and fraudulent operations are only the surface of a deeper ecosystem of corruption, human trafficking and transnational money laundering.
"We need to start prosecuting high-level criminals, track money flows through financial investigations and identify the vast networks behind these operations," said Delphine Shanz, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime's regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific. "The complexity of these crimes requires an equally sophisticated whole-of-government collaborative approach, as well as increased coordination between the government, financial intelligence units and digital banks."
A karaoke room designed in the Philippines for scam farm owners.
Field response in the Philippines and Cambodia
During a recent visit to a former fraud center in Manila, the Philippines, UNODC officials and investigators walked into the rooms where the crime bosses had been planning fraudulent operations hundreds of metres from government office buildings and foreign embassies.
In the compound area, which has now been converted into the offices of the Philippine Presidential Commission against Organized Crime (PAOCC), some rooms have remained the same: places where bosses entertain, such as karaoke rooms and gaming halls, and torture rooms to punish workers for substandard human trafficking.
A log book in the entertainment district lists politicians, city officials and police officers as guest hosts-a testament to the corruption that these activities can breed.
"How can you prove a cybercrime in 36 hours?" said PAOCC's director of operations, recalling the confusion when the police first raided the scene. They have just over a day to file charges and the legal deadline is set to expire.
UNODC is helping countries in the region to address these shortcomings by targeting the capacity to collect, analyze and share electronic evidence; reducing the space for organized criminal groups to transfer and invest resources through the underground banking system and the casino industry in the region; and enhancing cooperation to stem the flow of people trafficked to the region's fraud centres.
In the Philippines, UNODC assisted PAOCC and other relevant anti-fraud agencies in developing victim-centred standard operating procedures: identification and repatriation of victims, collection of evidence and arrest of suspected perpetrators. UNODC is also working with relevant departments to develop national strategies against transnational organized crime.
Meanwhile, a Cambodian delegation of prosecutors, investigators and central authorities visited a raided fraud center in Phnom Penh last December, along with officials from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Participants discussed mutual legal assistance, extradition, asset recovery and the proper handling of cross-border digital evidence-all key aspects of tackling the fraud industry. The timing is deliberate: Cambodia recently established the Committee to Fight Cyber Fraud (CCOS), a high-level coordinating body chaired by the Prime Minister and represented by 25 ministries, with powers to work with the armed forces and law enforcement across the country.
Towards a global anti-fraud response
Despite increased attention and local law enforcement, scam centers continue to operate, often migrating during raids on a stronghold. As governments race to track down crimes, victims are still losing billions of dollars. This week's Global Anti-Fraud Summit, organized jointly by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Interpol (INTERPOL), focuses precisely on this challenge: translating political will into concrete long-term impact.
Global leaders discussed priorities, a coherent response and advanced solutions, but officials stressed the need for operational follow-up in the next phase: joint cross-border operations, coordinated prosecutions and real-time intelligence sharing.
Sawyer said he and his wife, along with hundreds of victims, were disappointed by the response of the banks and the government. "The liars did it twice: they took your money, and they took your soul. They indeed are. They take away your self-worth. Then again, you feel that you have been deceived by the authorities ignoring the response, "he told UNODC.
He hopes that as countries share solutions, engage in international cooperation and attract more global attention, victims like him will also benefit from the effective responses that other countries have already implemented.
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