- There are hundreds of scam farms throughout Southeast Asia, the UN is saying
- Local governments are making raids, but they are ineffective
- The industry is spreading to Africa and South America.
Although governments and law enforcement agencies in the Southeast Asia region do everything possible to contain the threat, the scam industry is thriving, taking advantage of the fact that there are many remote and inaccessible regions and many impoverished and sub -education to abuse.
This is according to a new report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). As reported by Cybernews, UNODC said the scam industry is “billionaire” and is expanding worldwide to include South America and Africa.
It originated in Southeast Asia, where there are “hundreds” of large -scale farms, which houses tens of thousands of workers. Some of these people were even trafficked and forced to work on these scams. These farms are generating “tens of billions of dollars” in annual profits, said UNODC.
Spread like cancer
The governments of Southeast Asian countries, such as China, Thailand, Myanmar and many others, are persistently trying to interrupt these activities, but apparently do not achieve much, since groups can simply collect and move elsewhere.
“It spreads like cancer,” said Benedikt Hofmann, an interim regional representative of UNODC for Southeast Asia and Pacific. “The authorities treat it in an area, but the roots never disappear; they simply migrate.”
“The regional Cyberfraud industry … has surpassed other transnational crimes, since it is easily scalable and can reach millions of potential victims online, without the need to move or traffic of illicit products across borders,” said John Wojcik, a regional analyst with UNODC.
The report mentions repressions in the “areas without law” of the border of Thai-Myanmar, Cambodia and in other places. The criminals would simply migrate to Laos, Myanmar and other “more remote, vulnerable and little prepared parts of Southeast Asia.”
Money stolen through fraud must still be washed, so these groups are expanding to Africa and South America, where they are associated with drug cartels. UNODC says that operations are being established in Zambia, Angola and Namibia, but also in Eastern European countries such as Georgia.
Through Cybernews
