By Popi MacPherson
Bangkok (Reuters) -Asian crime trade unions behind the multi -grade cybership industry are expanding globally, including South America and Africa, as attacks in Southeast Asia have failed to limit their activities, a report from the United Nations said.
Criminal networks that have emerged in Southeast Asia in recent years, opening scattered compounds that house tens of thousands of workers, many traffic and forced to fry the victims around the world have become a complex global industry, said the United Nations and Crime Nations service (Unodc).
Even when the governments of Southeast Asia have strengthened repression, the unions have moved to the region, the agency said, adding that “potentially irreversible transfusion has happened … leaving criminal groups free to choose and move … according to the needs.”
“It is spread like a cancer,” says John Voychik, a regional analyst for UNODC. “Authorities treat him in an area, but the roots never disappear; they just migrate.”
Conservative estimates show that there are hundreds of large -scale fraud farms around the world, generating tens of billions of dollars annual profits, UNODC said. The agency has called on the parties to work together and to strengthen their efforts to violate the financing of gangs.
“The regional cyberuda industry … Other transnational crimes are ahead of other transnational crimes, given that it is easily scale and able to reach millions of potential casualties online without having to move or traffle goods through borders,” Voychik said.
The United States only reports more than $ 5.6 billion in losses for cryptocurrency fraud in 2023, including over $ 4 million in so -called pig fraud or romantic frauds designed to blackmail money from frequent adults and vulnerable people.
“Point of folding”
In recent months, authorities from China, where many gangs have originated, Thailand and Myanmar have been repressing fraud operations in the lawless regions of the Thailand-Mianmar border, such as Thai cutting energy, fuel and internet delivery of residential residential compounds.
But the unions have adapted, displacing operations between “the most distant, vulnerable and insufficiently prepared parts of Southeast Asia”, especially in Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia, and beyond, using low -controlled jurisdictions and high -rate jurisdictions.
The raids in parts of Cambodia, where the industry is most visible “led to a significant expansion of more distant places”, including the country’s province in the country, as well as areas bordering on Thailand and Vietnam, the UN agency reported.